AUBURN – It was “coincidence” – that and a slip of the hand – that landed Brent Matthews in trouble.

At least that’s what he told Judge Ellen Gorman on Thursday.

Matthews said he was running down Lisbon Street planning to put a severed pig’s head in front of the place where “dark people” congregate, not knowing it was a mosque, the place where local Somali Muslims worship.

When he got to the open door, he said, the thawing head inadvertently slipped from his hands and tumbled into the building.

The fact that those Muslim worshippers where the pig’s head landed find pork repellent was nothing more than a “coincidence,” he maintained.

Matthews said he has black and gay friends and insisted he’s not a racist. He said he hadn’t known that pork is considered impure in Islamic culture.

Gorman, presiding over an injunction hearing at Androscoggin County Superior Court on Thursday, didn’t buy it.

She ordered Matthews to stay away from the 23 Lisbon St. mosque as part of a preliminary injunction sought by state prosecutors under the Maine Civil Rights Act.

If Matthews violates any of the many conditions outlined in the order, he can be charged with a class D crime, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

During the hearing, Matthews said he had picked up the head at a pig roast a couple of weeks before the July 3 mosque incident. He intended to use it for target practice in a sand pit, he said.

Then he got the idea of putting it outside the mosque as a gag. “I was always a practical joker in high school,” he said.

Matthews’ actions rekindled racial controversy sparked in 2002 by a former mayor who wrote an open letter to members of the Somali community asking that they stem the flow of their people into Lewiston.

During Thursday’s daylong hearing, Matthews, 33, of Lewiston took the stand and repeatedly called the stunt “just a joke” that wasn’t intended to hurt anyone.

A week before the incident, he had pitched the prank to Lewiston Police Officer Eric Syphers. Matthews asked if he’d be committing a crime. Syphers said on the stand Thursday that he told Matthews he didn’t know which specific law Matthews would be breaking but advised him against the action, suggesting it would be viewed as racially motivated.

“I really didn’t think he was going to do it,” Syphers said.

Two Somali men who were praying at the mosque that night also testified Thursday, saying that their fellow worshippers were shocked and angered by the incident. It made them feel vulnerable, they said.

“We didn’t feel safe for our children,” said Omar Al-qudah, who has a 2-year-old daughter he used to take to the mosque.

Someone screamed when the head appeared on the rug. The group then rushed to the door in an effort to identify the person responsible. They didn’t see anyone.

Afterward, the area was blocked off, then had to be washed and dried seven times in keeping with Islamic tradition.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin summed up her argument, saying there was no coincidence in Matthews’ actions on the night of July 3.

“Of all the storefronts in Lewiston, he chose 23 Lisbon St.” she said. “He chose to play this joke on dark people at this mosque.”

He didn’t use a cow’s head or a duck’s head, she said. It was a pig’s head, considered vile and impure by Islamic culture.

Robbin said, “If that isn’t racial bias, I don’t know what is.”

She also said it would be “physically impossible” to roll a pig’s head into the prayer area without setting foot in the mosque.

James Howaniec, Matthews’ lawyer, said the incident has been blown out of proportion. It was nothing more than an “act of stupidity,” he said.

Gorman sided with Robbin’s view.

“There simply is no other explanation,” she said before signing the order.

She compared Matthews’ actions and explanation to those of people who paint swastikas on synagogues or display Ku Klux Klan robes where African American people can see them.

Matthews appeared remorseful.

“I feel bad,” he said. “I wish I could turn back time.”

After the hearing, Nuh Iman, the imam from the mosque, said the judge made the right decision. He stressed that the people at the mosque forgive Matthews and view it as an isolated incident.

Matthews also faces a criminal charge of defacement and desecration of a place of worship, a misdemeanor.

Robbin said she expected that charge to be prosecuted before the court considers imposing a permanent injunction.

Of the 200 injunctions in effect under the Maine Civil Rights Act, about six people have violated it. They all received jail time, she said.