AUBURN – Police ought to give up their drinking-and-driving accusation against Auburn Mayor Normand Guay, residents said Tuesday.

When police tests showed that Guay’s blood alcohol level was .01, one-eighth the legal limit, they should have let him go, they said.

“The officers did their duty, but they should drop the whole thing,” said Claude Godbout, an Auburn resident who attended Auburn’s National Night Out celebration Tuesday, an event aimed at strengthening ties between police and the community. “When the test came back, (the police) should have quit it.”

Police pulled over Guay late Monday. After admitting to an officer that he’d had been drinking beer, Guay was given a field sobriety test. He was then handcuffed, taken to the police station and submitted to a test of his blood alcohol level. He passed.

“I don’t see any reason to proceed with the investigation,” said Robert Wright of Auburn, who wondered if police would charge others in such circumstances.

“He should be treated like anybody else,” Wright said. “If he’s the mayor, it shouldn’t matter.”

Wright watched Tuesday as Guay spoke to the crowd, including many police officers, who had gathered at Auburn’s Festival Plaza. It was an event planned long before Guay’s arrest.

Guay, a probation officer for the state and a former Auburn police officer, read a proclamation honoring the event and Auburn’s stature as a safe community.

Under the law, said Rachel Murphy of Bowdoin, “He shouldn’t be held to a higher standard than other people.”

But his position, as the city’s elected leader, ought to make him cautious, said Darcy York, a Bates College student from Harpswell.

“It seems like, as a public figure, he should have held himself to a slightly higher standard,” York said.

Guay said Tuesday he was never intoxicated

“I can’t judge him,” said Brad Sherwood of Auburn. “I’m tired of people accusing other people. So, I’m not going to do it.”

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