LEWISTON — “Go back to your country or I will (expletive) kill you!”
That was the threat screamed at a Somali woman by a knife-wielding Lewiston woman in late January, according to court records supporting a civil rights complaint filed against the woman Tuesday by the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
Andrea Ouellette, 65, of Lewiston faces a Maine Civil Rights Act complaint from the Maine Attorney General’s office as well as criminal charges related to that January incident and another criminal charge for a similar, unrelated incident in November.
Attorney General Aaron Frey filed the complaint in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging Ouellette violated the Maine Civil Rights Act on two occasions in the past four months.
The most recent incident occurred as the 48-year-old Somali woman, who has lived in Lewiston for over 20 years, returned to her Maple Street home on a late January afternoon. She had parked her car near Ouellette’s 73 Knox St. residence and Ouellette approached with a knife yelling that the woman could not park there, the complaint said.
At the time, Ouellette was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and violating conditions of release.
Andrea Ouellette, 65, of Lewiston faces a Maine Civil Rights Act complaint from the Attorney General’s office over a November assault and a confrontation involving a knife in January. Androscoggin County Jail
In November, Ouellette was charged by police with assault when she allegedly confronted a 31-year-old Black man while he was outside speaking with a neighbor. Ouellette called the man a racial epithet and threw a pumpkin at his head. The assault caused the man a broken tooth, broken nose and swollen face, leaving him in need of surgery.
Ouellette told the man to “go back to your own country!” the complaint states.
The Maine Civil Rights Act allows the Attorney General to take action against anyone engaging in physical force or violence, property damage against another person, or threats of such motivated by biases. Those biases include race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.
The attorney general has requested a civil injunction prohibiting Ouellette from contacting the victims and from committing future Maine Civil Rights Act violations.
“Maine should be a place where everyone, no matter what race, feels safe to live and thrive,” Frey said. “I will use the Maine Civil Rights Act to its fullest extent to stop racist threats and violence.”
Court records showed Ouellette was granted a motion Monday to amend bail conditions on the two criminal cases, which are now under a unified docket. The motion said Ouellette is “bulled (sic) daily in the jail but (sic) other inmates and really has no defense mechanisms due to the fact of her advanced age and that she has never been in jail before.”
Ouellette’s bail was set at $1,000 cash or a Maine Pretrial Services contract that would require her to live with her sister. The motion noted Ouellette’s sister cannot accommodate her due to her sister’s advanced age and small living quarters.
Having served 45 days in jail without the means to provide cash bail, and since plea deals have been denied once or twice a week since her incarceration, the court granted Ouellette amended bail conditions that Maine Pretrial Services supervise her move to a women’s shelter outside Lewiston. Ouellette’s counsel said the jail time already served was just punishment.
The court granted a hearing March 8 on a motion to revoke bail based on Ouellette violating conditions of release from the November incident.
She is scheduled to appear in court again May 20.
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