The Maine supreme court heard arguments Tuesday on the question of whether a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Colorado case this summer affects Maine’s stalking law.
The Supreme Judicial Court is considering an appeal by Jacob Labbe, who was convicted of stalking and violating a protective order. The court first heard arguments in May, but after the Colorado decision this summer, both sides returned Tuesday seeking resolution to what, if any impact that decision should have.
The Colorado decision focused on a First Amendment challenge, finding that state courts used the wrong test in determining whether defendant Billy Raymond Counterman’s speech was a “true threat.”
Labbe’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, argued that Labbe did not make any threats, and that if the court fails to apply the new Colorado test, Labbe would be granted less protection than he deserves under the law.
“People like Mr. Counterman who actually truly threaten people would get more protection than folks like Labbe that just ask to get their clothes, see their son and make nonthreatening comments,” Paradie said. “That could not have been the intention of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
But Assistant Attorney General Katherine Hudson-MacRae argued that the Colorado case does not apply to Labbe’s, which was focused on his conduct rather than the content of his speech.
“Unlike Counterman, Jacob Labbe was not prosecuted because of what he said, but because he communicated repeatedly with the victim, despite her asking him to stop and in spite of a protection from abuse order that prohibited contact with her,” Hudson-MacRae said.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
