DIXFIELD – A lawsuit against the town of Dixfield, its police chief and a patrolman was recently settled before the case got to court.
Plaintiffs Marilyn Engberg and her 17-year-old son, Don Engberg, both of Porter Road in Dixfield, were awarded $7,500 on Sept. 6 after Oxford County Superior Court Justice Ellen Gorman approved the settlement in Paris.
Redland Insurance Co. paid the settlement on behalf of the town, Police Chief Richard A. Pickett and Patrolman Jeffrey Howe.
Of the $7,500, $2,500 was to be paid to the Engbergs’ lawyer, Walter Hanstein of Farmington, along with $201.24 to cover his costs.
The remaining $4,798.76 was to be paid to Marilyn Engberg, to be deposited in an interest-bearing account solely for the use and benefit of her son.
The Engbergs filed suit in August in the Paris Superior Court, seeking $7,500 in damages sustained by Don Engberg after execution of a no-knock search warrant at 1 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2004, by Howe.
Among the claims made in the suit, Howe was accused of forcibly throwing then 16-year-old Don Engberg to the ground at gunpoint, and forcibly holding him on the ground “for some time in a violent and threatening way.”
Comments are no longer available on this story