Harassment Order Filed Against Lewiston Activist as Bartlett Street Parking Lot Controversy Deepens

LEWSITON, Maine – Matthew Theriault of Mid Valley Motors Towing and Recovery filed a harassment order Friday against Lewiston community activist Melissa Dunn, adding another layer to a controversy that has already consumed significant attention from police, elected officials, activists, and residents in Maine’s second-largest city. According to Theriault, Dunn refused to take the order from the police on Friday.

Dunn has been a visible figure in the ongoing dispute surrounding the parking lots near the mosque and Miers on Bartlett Street in Lewiston. She has led what has been described as a Friday “safety squadron,” a group that has gathered in the area on Fridays to monitor and, according to supporters, protect the parking lots. The “safety squadron” has had the police called on them multiple times the past few weeks, for impeding business and blocking customers from coming in and out of business on Bartlett Street.

Protect them from what, exactly, remains unclear.

Still, the location has become one of the most talked-about places in the city. On some Fridays, city councilors have shown up. At times, even the mayor has appeared, according to reports. Police and local leaders have spent a remarkable amount of time and attention on the parking lot dispute, even as Lewiston continues to grapple with serious public safety concerns, including youth violence and rising gun-related incidents.

For many residents, the contrast is difficult to ignore.

While children are shooting children in the streets and neighborhoods are demanding answers about violence, city leaders appear increasingly drawn into a weekly political spectacle centered on a parking lot.

The harassment order filed by Theriault comes as screenshots from Dunn’s Facebook page appear to show an escalating series of public accusations against the Lewiston Police Department, individual officers, local officials, members of the media, and other community members.

The posts, attributed to Frankie Marin Melissa Dunn, include repeated claims of “cyberstalking,” harassment, intimidation, falsified reports, database misuse, and misconduct. They also reference alleged conspiracies involving police, city officials, media outlets, and community figures.

Several of the posts appear to target named individuals, including Lewiston Police Officer Ryan Gagnon and District Attorney Neil McLean Jr., whose office serves Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. Dunn’s posts also name or reference elected officials, prosecutors, members of the media, and members of The Maine Wire, including this reporter, Jon Fetherston, and Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson.

The references to Gagnon and McLean appear to be part of a broader pattern in the screenshots, where Dunn accuses law enforcement and legal officials of misconduct, retaliation, and participation in what she describes as a larger campaign against her. The posts frame those accusations as part of an alleged civil and criminal conspiracy involving police, prosecutors, local officials, media figures, and private citizens.

The conflict between Dunn and this reporter predates the latest harassment order. Earlier this year, Dunn assaulted this reporter during a Lewiston City Council meeting, further underscoring how personal and volatile the Bartlett Street controversy and related public disputes have become.

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-assaulted-at-city-council-meeting-in-maine

Dunn’s posts also appear to claim that she has documentation and timestamps to support her allegations. In one recurring theme, she references being served with a cease-and-desist order, which she portrays as retaliation or intimidation.

Other posts accuse various people and organizations of supporting or enabling extremist behavior and violence. Some suggest police officers should lose their badges, uniforms, and weapons. Many of the accusations are framed as part of a broader pattern of stalking, surveillance, harassment, and retaliation dating back several years.

The posts also include references to social media documentation being kept public “for transparency,” along with rhetoric describing broad corruption, “civil and criminal conspiracy,” and institutional misconduct within the Lewiston Police Department and related entities.

Some of the language in the posts uses altered spellings or coded references when discussing race, nationalism, violence, or extremism.

Taken together, the screenshots appear to document an increasingly hostile public campaign aimed at law enforcement, local officials, media figures, prosecutors, and private citizens. Dunn presents the posts as an effort to expose corruption and misconduct. Others may view them as part of the very behavior that has now led to formal legal action.

The dispute over Bartlett Street has become more than a fight over pavement. It has become a symbol of Lewiston’s current civic dysfunction, where elected officials, activists, police, and residents have been pulled into a recurring public confrontation while the city faces far more urgent questions about safety, violence, and leadership.

Theriault’s harassment order against Dunn now places the controversy possibly into the courts, even as the political and community fallout continues.

At a time when Lewiston residents are demanding action on violence in their neighborhoods, many may reasonably ask why one parking lot continues to command so much attention from the very officials elected to confront the city’s larger public safety crisis.