AUBURN, Maine – Former Lewiston City Councilor Iman Osman, whose brief time in elected office collapsed under the weight of criminal charges and questions over whether he actually lived in the ward he was elected to represent, is scheduled to appear Friday morning in Androscoggin County Superior Court.
Osman is expected in court on Friday, May 1, 2026, at 8:30 a.m., where his attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the case. Motions to dismiss are common pretrial filings in criminal cases and do not, by themselves, determine guilt or innocence.
Osman was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury on charges of receiving stolen property and theft by unauthorized taking. The charges are tied to allegations involving firearms allegedly taken from two estates between November 2023 and October 2024.
Osman has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorneys have denied the allegations and previously indicated that Osman intends to fight the case.
The criminal charges are only one part of the controversy surrounding Osman, who resigned from the Lewiston City Council in January, less than 72 hours after being sworn into office.
Osman won the Ward 5 council seat in November by a narrow margin, but almost immediately faced scrutiny over his listed address at 210 Blake St. in Lewiston. That building had reportedly been condemned after a drug raid in October 2024, raising questions about whether Osman was actually residing in the ward he had been elected to represent.
Through his attorney, Osman argued that he intended to return to the Blake Street property. However, his attorney did not publicly disclose where Osman was actually living and sleeping at the time the residency questions were raised.
The Lewiston City Council voted to investigate whether Osman met the residency requirements for office. Before that process could fully play out, Osman resigned, writing that he believed stepping aside was in the best interest of the city.
Osman’s name has also surfaced in the ongoing controversy over the Maine Community Foundation’s Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund, which was created after the Oct. 25, 2023 Lewiston mass shooting.
Osman has served as executive director of the Lewiston Auburn Youth Network, one of 29 nonprofit organizations that received roughly $65,522 through the fund’s broad recovery and organizations track. The distribution has drawn sharp criticism from survivors, victims’ families, and residents who believed donations made after the massacre should have gone directly to those most affected by the shooting.
The case now returns to court Friday morning, where the judge is expected to take up the defense motion to dismiss. If the motion is denied, the case could continue toward future pretrial proceedings or trial.
