Conservative activist and parental rights advocate Nicholas Blanchard is planning to sue the Augusta Police Department after he was arrested at gunpoint last month during a protest, while officers refused to charge him with any crime.
Blanchard, who uses the name CornPop from Maine online, was at the Memorial Bridge in Augusta to counterprotest during a No-Kings rally on October 18 when, according to him, protesters called the police because they saw that he was carrying what appeared to be a handgun.
He clarified that the apparent firearm was actually a non-lethal weapon that fired balls filled with mace and tear gas.
“One of the crazy lunatics on the other side seen it screams out ‘He’s got a gun!’ Next thing you know, someone’s calling 9-1-1. Augusta PD shows up, pulls their guns out on me, wrongfully throws me in cuffs, puts me in the back of a cop-car, and takes me to Augusta PD telling me I’m being charged with terroristic threats, only to let me go because I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” said Blanchard, in a video posted the day of his arrest.
Blanchard was released shortly after his arrest and did not face any charges in relation to the incident.
In response to the situation, Blanchard has vowed to sue the Augusta Police Department, filed a formal complaint against Sergeant Desmond Nutter, the arresting officer, and submitted a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request for the body camera footage from the incident.
Over the weekend, Blanchard posted some of the footage he received in response to his FOAA request, which included video of his arrest, footage from inside the police cruiser, footage of his release, and a lengthy video showing police searching for his confiscated items and apparently losing track of his phone and watch.
The clip of his arrest begins with a female officer confirming that Blanchard was arrested at gunpoint because he “grabbed it” when they arrived. However, the clip Blanchard posted does not make clear what she was discussing and does not show the moment officers pointed firearms at him.
“He grabbed it when we came here so we did take him down at gunpoint,” said the officer.
Blanchard maintains that he did not pull out or brandish his weapon at any point during the incident. He said during the footage that the only altercation he had with the protesters came when one of them grabbed his phone and he grabbed it back.
Throughout the video, which includes muted segments redacted by the police department, Blanchard can be heard protesting his innocence of any wrongdoing and demanding to know why he was being detained and arrested.
Initially, the female officer claims that he was being detained while they investigated alleged criminal terrorizing.
Shortly thereafter, Nutter says they needed to remove Blanchard from the bridge before protesters “turn(ed) on him” and tells him that he is under arrest. Blanchard offers to leave on his own, but Nutter reaffirms that he is being arrested.
Nutter repeatedly refuses to respond when Blanchard asks him why he is under arrest. He eventually says, “I don’t know,” but then suggests that the arrest was because of his weapon, which appeared to be a firearm.
“You [indistinguishable] a gun dude, look at all those people,” said Nutter.
In the next clip, Blanchard pointed out that he did not brandish his weapon at the protesters and that the weapon, which is not a real firearm, is legal in all 50 states and requires no permit.
Notably, even if the weapon was a firearm, Maine is a Constitutional Carry state, making it legal to conceal carry a firearm even without a permit.
“All I was doing was setting up my stuff, that’s all I was doing,” said Blanchard.
Footage from the station shows Blanchard being told that he is not under arrest, and Nutter offering to explain his side of the story.
Blanchard refuses the explanation and demands an apology, which Nutter refuses to give.
Following his release, Blanchard claimed that any argument made by officers that he was removed from the bridge to protect him from protesters is illegitimate because they left another counterprotester, Lisa, on the bridge with the angry protesters.
According to Blanchard, the Augusta Police Department has opened an investigation into Nutter’s conduct, but the investigation cannot be completed until he returns from a 16-week paternity leave.
The Maine Wire reached out to both Nutter and Augusta Police Chief Kevin Lully, asking for the department’s side of the story, but they did not respond immediately.
According to Blanchard, the release of records was delayed because the Augusta Police Department was redacting elements of the footage, and he had to pay $100 to receive it.
FOAA law allows public entities to charge up to $25 per hour after the first two hours for the time taken to compile or prepare records for release.
During a call with the police department discussing the records request, an officer told Blanchard that part of the reason for the delay was a legal requirement to redact the faces of the protesters who could be seen in the footage.
“By law I have to redact everybody’s face that’s on the bridge out of that because they have a right to privacy,” said the officer speaking to Blanchard.
While FOAA law does require redactions for some information, including information that “constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” it is unclear how releasing the faces of protesters in a public place could constitute an infringement of their privacy.
Blanchard was wearing his own body camera during the incident, but according to a YouTube video re-posted by Blanchard, the police deleted the footage from that camera. Based on the bodycam footage, it appears that the deletion could have been a mistake while Nutter attempted to turn the camera off.
