Dec. 2—Multiple leaders of the Maine State Police again insisted Thursday that they did not retaliate against an employee who claims to have blown the whistle on illegal practices at a state police intelligence center.
In emphatic and repetitive testimony in federal court, current and former police leaders said they had already made the decision to remove Detective George Loder from a federal anti-terrorism task force before Loder first claimed that his unit at the Maine Intelligence and Analysis Center had broken federal privacy regulations.
Loder contends in a civil lawsuit filed in 2020 that he was pulled from the task force for raising concerns about what he thought were illegal practices at the MIAC and was later denied a chance to advance his career.
But over and over, state police leaders who took the stand Thursday said his retaliation claim was impossible for one simple reason: Loder had not voiced his concerns to his superiors before they decided he would be returned to his old police unit.
Attorneys for the state Department of Public Safety are expected to finish arguments Friday and hand the case to a 10-person jury that will determine if Loder deserves whistleblower protection. He is asking jurors to award him unspecified monetary damages for emotional distress.
Retired Col. John Cote and retired Maj. Christopher Grotton testified that they did not know Loder had made any allegations of impropriety before they decided in the spring of 2018 to cancel his...
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