BELFAST, Maine — The drummer from the rock band Phish has been granted a temporary protection from harassment order against a local chimney sweep.
Jonathan Fishman of Phish owns a home in Lincolnville, where he and his family live part of the year. According to the order filed Monday at Belfast District Court, a 60-year-old chimney sweep, Bradley Williams of Belfast, has been distributing pamphlets and letters around Belfast that make unsubstantiated allegations about Fishman and others.
Williams, who previously provided chimney services to Fishman, is circulating material that accused Fishman of sexual impropriety based on the musician’s sometimes sensational onstage behavior. The drummer is known for antics such as wearing a dress, playing solos on a vacuum cleaner and occasionally taking off his clothes onstage.
“Mr. Williams has distributed material which make outrageous and false statements against a lot of people in the community including judges, lawyers, town officials and police officers,” Fishman’s attorney Joseph Baiungo wrote Friday in an email to the BDN. “Initially we did nothing, hoping he would just go away. However, his behavior has become increasingly more irrational, making the court filing necessary.”
Baiungo wrote in his request for the temporary protection order that “the untrue allegations against [Fishman] are per se defamatory.”
According to court documents, Fishman and his wife, Briar, had a previous protection from harassment order against Williams that expired last September. After that, Williams sent the couple’s attorney a lengthy email on Jan. 9 that indicated Williams wanted to sue Jonathan Fishman and “take every penny he had.” Williams also sent an email to other attorneys across the state to ask for their help in suing Fishman. In those emails, Williams made untrue statements about the musician, according to the motion for temporary order.
Based on those emails, Baiungo wrote, Belfast police on Jan. 9 issued a notice to cease harassment to Williams. Sgt. John Gibbs of the Belfast Police Department said Friday that the notice to cease harassment was a departmental order that is “a step below” going to court to obtain a protection from abuse or harassment order.
According to the terms of that order, Williams was forbidden from engaging in any course of conduct with the “intent to harass, torment or threaten” Fishman. It remains in effect for a year.
However, last week Williams distributed several handwritten and photocopied pages to Belfast city officials, local businesses and local media outlets, including the Bangor Daily News, that repeated his allegations.
An affidavit requesting an arrest warrant against Williams for violation of the cease harassment order has been submitted to the Waldo County District Attorney’s office by Belfast police and is pending review.
In response to the temporary protection order, Williams submitted to Belfast District Court a 10-page long motion that denies he has done anything wrong and includes more allegations about Fishman and many others in the community.
A final hearing will be held later this month to determine whether Williams will be served with a longer-term protection from harassment order.