By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUBURN – The state lodged a civil rights complaint Monday against a Greene woman who allegedly spat at a man and spewed racial slurs because he was driving too slowly on a Lewiston street.

The civil lawsuit, filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court, alleges that 30-year-old Tammy Spence was driving on Bartlett Street on Nov. 18, following a car that was going slowly. A 31-year-old Somali man from Portland was driving with his wife, navigating a road construction detour when Spence signaled for him to pull over.

The man complied, thinking Spence was lost and needed directions. She got out of her car, walked up to his window and knocked on it. When he rolled it down, she asked him why he was driving so slowly. He explained that he wasn’t familiar with the area.

Spence spat in the man’s face and began yelling racial comments at him. She said, “You Somalians need to go back to your own county … you’re not welcome here,” according to the suit.

The man called police and instructed Spence not to leave. Spence also called 911 as she continued shouting racial slurs, calling him an “ugly monkey” and other racial epithets and telling him he smelled. A recording of the 911 call captured some of the epithets, the suit says.

In its suit, the Maine Attorney General’s Office is seeking an injunction against Spence, to block her from:

• physically harming the man;

• threatening to harm him;

• harassing or intimidating him;

• going on his property;

• speaking or writing to him;

• being within 200 feet of him;

• getting someone else to do any of those things to him; or

• violating the civil rights of anyone in general.

If a judge agrees and issues the order, Spence would face charges of a class D crime, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

She was charged in January by local police with assault and disorderly conduct in connection to the incident. The assault charge was later dropped. Spence pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, according to 8th District Court records.

Spence, whose telephone number is unpublished, could not be reached for comment. The Attorney General’s Office requested the victim’s name be withheld for privacy, safety and sensitivity reasons.

The lawsuit comes at a time when racial tensions in Lewiston are high. A rally scheduled for today in Kennedy Park is being held in response to a man allegedly rolling a pig’s head into a local mosque. Some members of the Somali community also say they’ve been targeted recently by vandals.

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