PORTLAND (AP) – The Maine State Troopers Association has offered to help a South Portland police officer sue a Portland attorney who has filed at least a dozen excessive force lawsuits against police in recent years.

The union’s leaders have told Officer James Fahey that the union will pay the legal costs if Fahey wants to sue Michael Waxman for malicious prosecution or slander. A federal court jury cleared Fahey last month in a lawsuit in which Waxman’s client, Robyn Toler, claimed the officer went too far to control her during an arrest.

Michael Edes, the association president, said the suit was frivolous, as evidenced by the jury’s returning a verdict in less than half an hour, and a videotape showing the interaction between Fahey and the admittedly intoxicated Toler.

“It is our belief Attorney Waxman typifies the expression ‘ambulance chaser’ and that he has filed excessive force lawsuits on this and other cases knowing full well that the officers were in the right,” Edes said.

Fahey said he is thinking about the union’s offer and plans to make a decision after the holidays.

Waxman called the union’s claims laughable and said he only files valid suits.

He said he would sue Fahey on similar grounds if Fahey sues him.

“The best way to fight those things is to be good cops,” Waxman said.

Waxman has been a visible attorney in a string of excessive force claims against police departments in Portland and neighboring communities. He cited his record in court, including two trial victories in excessive force cases and settlements in several others.

During Fahey’s trial, Toler admitted that she was drunk the night of her arrest, and admitted to cursing Fahey and making crude sexual comments that referred to his wife. But she said that did not give him the right to throw her to the ground.

Fahey testified that it was not Toler’s words that led him to ground her. He believed that she was going to spit in his face. Both sides focused on a tape from a cruiser-mounted camera that showed Toler resisting and Fahey knocking her down.

Fahey, a 16-year veteran of the department, said the case took a toll on him and his family, and hurt his reputation as a law enforcement officer.

“They had no case. It never should have gotten where it got,” he said.

AP-ES-11-21-03 0216EST