PARIS – When the jury announced the verdict of not guilty in court Friday morning, Stanley Larson collapsed into tears and turned to his lawyer to embrace him.
For the next few minutes as the judge spoke, Larson continued to cry while holding his hand over his heart.
Larson, 37, of Paris, had been on trial, accused of impersonating a police officer and pulling over a young woman in Waterford last January.
“I have been torn up since this has happened,” Larson said after he had finished hugging his family. His family, including his parents, wife, grandmother and brother, had sat behind him during the trial Wednesday at the Oxford County Superior Court. They remained with him all day Thursday, too, waiting for the jury’s decision.
The 12-member jury took more than four hours Thursday deliberating behind closed doors, and had to return Friday to continue their work. They met briefly Friday before reaching a consensus.
While jurors were not allowed to speak about their decision, one of the major uncertainties of the case developed from the victim’s description of the man who stopped her. She originally told police he was tall and heavyset, but Larson has a small build.
Also, the defense took issue with the photographic lineup police gave to the woman. Although she said two distinctive features of the man were a cleft chin and mustache, only one photo in the lineup possessed both – Larson’s.
Finally, Larson’s wife testified he was home sleeping at 11:30 p.m. when the alleged incident took place. A co-worker testified he saw Larson’s Ford Crown Victoria parked in his home’s driveway on Skillings Avenue at 10:30 p.m.
Defense Attorney Alan Perry argued it didn’t make sense for Larson, who had worked 14 hours that day, to have left his home to drive to Waterford to accost a woman late at night.
Larson said now that the ordeal is over, he can get his life back. He is an emergency medical technician, but after he was suspected of being a police impersonator, two of his employers – PACE Ambulance in Norway and Med-Care Ambulance in Mexico- suspended him.
Tri-Town Emergency and Rescue Services in West Paris kept him on, but it was tough financially, the family said Friday.
Larson’s brother, Brett, said Larson went to Louisiana after the hurricane for two months to pick up extra work from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Larson’s wife, Lynn, said, “It’s been a very hard 11 months.” She said her children needed counseling to help them cope with the situation.
Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor, the prosecutor, said, “I respect the jury’s verdict,” adding that he appreciated the time they took to carefully consider all the evidence in the case.
The identity of the police impersonator – or impersonators – now remains a mystery.
In the last 18 months, there have been at least two incidents in the Bridgton area of a man stopping women by pretending to be an officer. A 17-year-old girl in Bridgton said a fake officer, dressed in a uniform, pulled her over in July 2004 driving a Chevrolet Caprice with a red and blue flashing light. And the crime for which Larson had been accused took place Jan. 3 along Route 118, when a 22-year-old woman said a man driving a police-like car stopped her with a red flashing light. In both cases, the man retreated when the women became suspicious.
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