She Said - She Said
Reveals
Corruption at Maine State Police
By
Joshua Gray, PI from Boston, Mass
On
a mid-June afternoon in Portland Maine, Katherine Biermann was returning home
with her son to continue celebrating his birthday. She suggested to her friend Nancy
Barone they play a board game and even offered her a beverage of Orange Juice.
Nancy, who was staying with Biermann as a guest, was not in a very good mood
and threw the beverage to the floor. A conflict then ensued. According to Biermann’s
statement to the Portland Police, Barone attacked her, pinned her to the ground
and started yelling for people to call the police. Barone’s statement claimed
the exact opposite. This was a case of she said, she said. When the Portland
police arrived Barone refused to answer the door and insisted that Biermann do
it. After a short investigation the Portland police decided to arrest Biermann
and charge her with Domestic Assault.
After
the humiliating experience of being arrested and spending a night is lockup,
Katherine Biermann pulled herself together and began the process of proving her
innocence. To complicate matter’s Biermann was a Licensed Private Investigator
who knew that a conviction of assault would most likely result in the
suspension or revocation of her PI license. Nancy Barone knew this as well and
decided to pour salt on her “friend’s” wounds and reported the arrest to
Elizabeth Pepper of the Maine State Police special licensing division. Biermann
remained optimistic, believing that she did nothing wrong and trusting in the
justice system. It was only a matter of weeks before Nancy Barone changed her
story and the charges were finally dropped in late October of 2012. There was
some indication that Barone may be mentally unstable. Katherine Biermann’s
summer nightmare had come to an end and she was vindicated of all wrongdoing.
Little did she know that her nightmare was only beginning and a real life
horror was about to unfold.
The
Maine State Police did not accept the decision of the system and decided that
Katherine Biermann was guilty of assault. They ignored the rule of law and became
Judge, Jury and Executioner. Maine State
Police Sgt. Michael Zabarsky, during a phone conversation with Nancy Barone,
stated very clearly they were not going to renew Biermann’s Private
Investigator License. Barone then boasted repeatedly to Biermann what Sgt.
Zabarsky had told her. Biermann retreated into depression and embarrassment and
felt the pressure of the world weighing down on her. She had done nothing wrong
and could not understand why her license would not be renewed.
Katherine
Biermann’s Private Investigation career began in the late 1980’s. She slowly
built up a private investigation practice working with lawyers, insurance
companies and anyone who would give her work. Her story is similar to many
Americans who get up every morning and work hard to achieve the American Dream.
By 2012 she had been in the industry for over twenty years and had a loyal
client base and a steady income of more than $50,000 a year. Biermann loved
what she did and worked hard for her clients. She was a good investigator that
planned to remain in business for many years to come. But all that changed when
several corrupt Maine State Police troopers decided to violate her
Constitutional, Civil and Human rights.
These
corrupt troopers are Sgt. Michael Zabarsky, Det. David Pelletier and Lt. Scott
Ireland. They did not care that charges were dismissed, they did not care about
due process or constitutional rights. It would have been so easy for them to
just follow the law, however they intentionally and knowingly decided to put
her out of business. They prepared the case to deny her renewal application and
wrote in their report “If Biermann renewed her Professional Investigators
License, the alleged conduct may provide grounds to deny her application for a Professional
Investigator License and /or initiate a complaint to deny/suspend/revoke…” This
quote was taken from a report written in February of 2013. This was after the
charges were dropped and she was vindicated of all wrongdoing. So you have to
ask, how could an innocent person be in jeopardy of having their professional
license taken away from them?
Sgt.
Zabarsky, Det. Pelletier and Lt. Ireland do not believe in the Constitution.
They do not believe that you are innocent until proven guilty, they do not
believe in the Justice system. They believe themselves to be Judge, Jury and
Executioner and they readied a case to deny Katherine Biermann of her rights.
Rather than subject herself to further embarrassment and possibly cause her
story to end up in the news, Biermann felt pressured to not even submit a
renewal application for her Private Investigator License. She was aware they
had decided to not renew and did not want to have a denial on her record. These
corrupt and lawless troopers had intimidated a successful female Private
Investigator out of business and over $50,000 in annual income. Why did they do
it?
The
career of Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier and Sgt. Michael Zabarsky
shows a history of corruption. There were internal affairs investigations,
disciplinary actions, and a history of intimidating other citizens. These three
troopers should have been fired from the Maine State Police a long time ago.
However, laws designed to shield public officials from prosecution, and the
lack of a citizen oversight committee for Maine Police corruption allegations.
Have protected them and they have managed to keep their jobs and even been
promoted. But the corruption may go even further. There is a possible illegal
and unethical connection between Lt. Scott Ireland and Michael Harrington who
owns one of the largest PI companies in Maine. Recently, Lt. Ireland nominated
Mr. Harrington, a private citizen, to be the chairman of an oversight committee
that regulates the PI industry in Maine. This basically means that Michael
Harrington now regulates himself in a blatant display of political corruption
facilitated by Lt Ireland.
I
had a conversation with Katherine Biermann in August of 2016 and discussed all
that happened to her. She was still very emotional and upset and confirmed the
reason for not renewing her license was pressure from the “Sargent at the State
Police”. I asked her specifically if she did work for Mr. Harrington and she
replied that she did not remember, however did not believe she ever did. This
was consistent with my theory that Mr. Harrington may be using his connection with
Lt Scott Ireland to put competition out of business. I also learned that
Biermann was not former law enforcement. It is well known that the majority of
PI’s are former law enforcement and the Maine State Police will find any reason
to deny a PI license to non-law enforcement. It seems obvious that Biermann was
competition to the man who Lt Ireland appointment to the oversight committee,
and she did not meet “good ole boy’ standards to even be a PI in the first
place.
I
learned about Biermann’s story through a freedom of information request that I
submitted to the Maine State Police. Her story sent chills down my spine as I
researched it and later spoke with her on the phone. I went through something
similar and had my rights violated by the exact same troopers. Our stories
consisted of the same ingredients; false charge, cased dismissed and these
dirty cops ignoring the law. I posted my story on Facebook, YouTube and twitter
and it was picked up by online blogs and shared around social media. Based on
the posts, multiple other victims of the Maine State Police and these exact
same troopers came forward. Private Investigator Bob Doyon of Maine was one of
the people who reached out to me and his story was the same. He told me how
these same troopers violated his rights. His story consisted of false
allegations and these same dirty cops not following the law. In total 16 people
have contacted me or I have learned about, three are now known to the public.
Sixteen victims of corrupt and dirty cops. Sixteen people who had their lives
interrupted for no reason. When I wrote the first article about my case, I
asked the question ‘I wonder how many other victims there are?’ I never
expected it would be so many.
Katherine
Biermann still lives in Portland and is now a grandmother. She manages to
survive on the small checks from social security and has remained unemployed
for over two years. Due to the poor job market she has found it difficult to
start over. She was a Private Investigator for most of her adult life and the
thought of doing anything else is depressing. Biermann is the victim of dirty
cops who decided to not follow the law. They decided to pick the winners and
losers. The Maine State Police, by intimidating her to not renew her license
and making it clear that even if she did, they would deny it, ruined Katherine
Biermann’s professional career. Biermann did not want her story to go public
and I debated for a long time whether to write this article. However, since I
learned her story through a freedom of information request of publicly
available records, I felt her story needed to be told. This corruption must
end.
