PORTLAND (AP) – A spat between two fathers that began during a youth hockey game in Falmouth in 2001 has flared up anew on the lacrosse field and is headed back to court.

Michael Hale of Falmouth won a $320 judgment in February after complaining that Dr. Demetri Antoniou threatened Hale’s 13-year-old son during an angry outburst that followed a rough play on the ice.

In the latest incident, Hale claims that Antoniou approached him at a May 17 lacrosse game between Deering and Cheverus high schools, cursed him and made fun of the small size of the jury award, according to a protection from harassment complaint that Hale filed in Portland District Court.

“(Antoniou) said I was an (expletive) loser and asked if I was there to sue someone,” Hale alleged in the complaint. “He then asked if I spent the $320 all in one place…Throughout this he was cursing.”

Hale said he left the game and Antoniou applauded. “He cursed and asked if I wanted to sue him again,” Hale wrote.

Peter DeTroy, Antoniou’s lawyer, denied that his client harassed Hale. He said Antoniou admits to making a comment about the lawsuit to Hale but denies the rest of Hale’s story.

DeTroy said witnesses would say that Antoniou traded remarks with people sitting with Hale, but the doctor did not harass him.

“Demetri made some flip comment, but it is not as Hale says it is,” DeTroy said.

Jurors in February found Antoniou, who lives in Cumberland, guilty of intentional infliction of emotional distress and awarded $320 to cover counseling costs for Jordan Hale, who was a seventh-grader at the time of the incident. The jury also found that Antoniou’s actions did not rise to assault and that he acted without malice, so Hale was not entitled to punitive damages.

In the latest complaint, Hale said he is not seeking money from Antoniou.

“I feel he is taunting me to try to provoke a response that wouldn’t benefit anyone,” Hale wrote. “I ask that the courts put an end to this behavior.”

—

Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com