AUBURN — Maine’s fire marshal is set to testify at the trial of the driver of a Jeep involved in a fatal haunted hayride crash in Mechanic Falls two years ago.

Joseph E. Thomas, top administrator at the Office of the State Fire Marshal, appeared at a pretrial hearing Tuesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court where he was quizzed by the defense about whether agricultural entertainment is regulated by state law or standards.

Allan Lobozzo, attorney for David Brown, 56, of South Paris, who is charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct, was seeking to have Thomas take the stand at Brown’s upcoming trial.

Deputy District Attorney James Andrews filed a motion aimed at blocking Lobozzo from presenting Thomas as a witness.

Justice MaryGay Kennedy ordered Thomas to appear after hearing him answer questions posed by Lobozzo and Andrews on Tuesday.

Lobozzo asked Thomas whether there was any portion of the agricultural entertainment industry that’s regulated by the State Fire Marshal’s office.

“No,” Thomas said.

“Is there any portion of it that you think should be regulated by your office?” Lobozzo asked.

Thomas said his office lacks expertise in those areas.

His investigators regulate amusement rides that operate in the state, including those that are at fixed locations as well as traveling carnivals. His inspectors and investigators train for that job by meeting with the manufacturers and engineers of the equipment used in those rides and learn the specifications and standards required for their operation, Thomas said.

His office inspects rides at different venues yearly at the beginning of the season to ensure they’re in good working order, Thomas said.

He said his office carries out regulations spelled out in state law. But there is no state legislation that gives his office the authority to inspect equipment used in agricultural entertainment and there’s no engineering school that teaches his inspectors and investigators about standards for farm equipment, he said.

The Legislature declined to enact state laws last year aimed at regulating farm rides used in public transport.

Thomas said his investigators are trained to find facts in a case based on their observations and through interviews of witnesses.

Lobozzo read from the report of one of the investigators of the haunted hayride crash on The Gauntlet ride at Harvest Hill Farm on Route 26 on the night of Oct. 11, 2014, that killed 17-year-old Cassidy Charette of Oakland.

In the report, investigator Kenneth MacMaster posed questions during an interview, disparaging the Jeep that Brown drove in a crude reference and, later, urging the interviewee to speak to a lawmaker about the need for legislation that would safeguard public safety in agricultural rides.

Lobozzo asked Thomas whether that line of questioning fit within his office’s guidelines for conducting investigations or showed that investigator was inserting his personal “agenda” in his questioning.

Thomas said repeatedly that he wasn’t present during the interview, but didn’t feel the investigator was out of bounds in his questioning.

Under cross-examination, Thomas told Andrews that he never discussed the specifics of the hayride crash investigation with the lead investigators at his department and had no firsthand knowledge of the case.

Andrews asked Thomas whether he was familiar with interview techniques that include speaking “in a free way in order to facilitate the interview.”

Thomas said he was.

Lobozzo said Thomas should be allowed to testify that there are no regulations in Maine “as to hayrides.” Lobozzo also said his client is charged with disregarding a risk by violating a standard of care.

Thomas can testify that “in this industry, at this time, there is no standard of care,” Lobozzo said.

He said Thomas could explain to the jury that investigators are charged with serving as fact finders, and are not officials who should inject their opinions in interviews and reports.

Andrews said Thomas could offer nothing at trial that would help the jury determine the criminal liability of Brown on the charge of reckless conduct.

He said there is in Maine — unlike the “wild west” — regulation of activities that occur on farms, including the machinery used.

Lobozzo is free to cross-examine MacMaster on the witness stand if he seeks to question that investigator’s interview technique, Andrews said.

Having Thomas testify at trial would “unnecessarily inject the political process into a criminal prosecution” causing confusion, wasting time and misleading the jury, Andrews said.

Lobozzo also was seeking to narrow the scope of the indictment against Brown, by having the state say it would focus solely on the brakes of the Jeep and its towing capacity. He said the jury should be instructed by the judge at the start of the trial that those are the factors they should pay attention to in determining whether Brown acted recklessly that night.

Kennedy told the two attorneys to try to work out language that she could review by midafternoon Wednesday.

The four-day trial is scheduled to start Thursday in Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath.

Brown was the driver of a Jeep involved in the crash of a flatbed trailer on which roughly two dozen customers on the haunted hayride were riding when it struck a tree and overturned on a steep hill.

Most of the other nearly two-dozen riders were injured, some seriously. Brown suffered a concussion and broken ribs.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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