The Bangor Daily News was the first to report this story. What you’re reading here would likely not be made public without the efforts of professional journalists asking questions, interviewing sources and obtaining documents.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson’s longtime partner told an officer he “pushed her around” after Jackson broke down a door and punched a man at a Fort Kent home in 1988, according to a police report obtained exclusively by the Bangor Daily News.
Jackson, who was 19 at the time, does not dispute the assault of the man, a misdemeanor charge resolved by a fine. But Lana Pelletier, who has been in a relationship with Jackson for roughly 40 years, says she has no memory of making the statement attributed to her by police and denied he pushed her. In a statement, Jackson denied he had ever been violent with her.
“Nearly [40] years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”
The unearthing of the old case comes less than three weeks after Jackson secured the Democratic nomination in an unprecedented sprint to replace Graham Platner on the ballot in a race with five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins that is pivotal to control of the chamber. Platner’s campaign collapsed after an ex-girlfriend’s allegation that he raped her in 2021.
Jackson, a former Maine Senate president from Allagash who is now 58, does not have a criminal record, according to a background check run by the BDN. The 1988 case was the only criminal one linked to Jackson in a search of state court records. The underlying court file has been destroyed under the judicial system’s retention schedule.
But the report at the Fort Kent Police Department and a handwritten witness statement lay out an account of that night.
Just before 2 a.m. on March 12, 1988, Jackson went to a home on Market Street in Fort Kent. When he knocked on the door, one occupant told him to go away, according to the police report. Jackson refused, and that’s when he “kicked the door in,” the victim’s handwritten statement to police said.
A friend of Jackson’s who was there tried to hold him back but could not, the victim’s statement said. Jackson then went after the man, grabbed him by the throat and swung at him, hitting his glasses and cutting the man’s face, the report and victim statement said.
The victim grabbed Jackson and held him by one arm and his throat until one of Jackson’s friends got between the two men, the victim said. Jackson told the man to “stay away from Lana Pelletier or else,” the victim’s statement said.
Pelletier, who is called Jackson’s ex-girlfriend in the police report, allegedly told the responding officer that Jackson pushed her following the assault and that she planned to go to court to get “cease harassment papers” against him. But there is no record of Pelletier ever doing so, and she denied telling police those things in a statement released by Jackson’s campaign.
“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me, and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago,” she said. “Troy and I have built a life and family together, and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father.”
The BDN is not naming the man Jackson hit because he is the victim of a crime. Reached by phone Wednesday, he declined comment but told a reporter that he was “digging deep for a bunch of bull——” by looking into an old fight. Jackson had been involved in other “incidents” in Fort Kent but had never been previously charged, the officer wrote in his report.
A surviving court summary of the case shows Jackson entered into an agreement to pay the man $50 to resolve the case. Jackson’s name appeared in a May 1988 edition of the BDN noting he was charged with assault and paid the fine.
Jackson and Pelletier have never married, but they had two adult sons together in the early 1990s. Since the longtime lawmaker clinched the nomination, conservative media have scrutinized their relationship after The Maine Wire reported Pelletier is Jackson’s second cousin. Both of them have large families in the region and live in a town of just over 200 people.
“I understand Maine voters want to learn about Troy as he seeks to represent them, but personal attacks on my family are unacceptable,” Pelletier said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time questions have been raised about Jackson’s conduct since he entered the high-stakes Senate race. National media reported that Jackson threw a water bottle during a heated 2021 argument with a female colleague in the Maine Senate, an episode his campaign acknowledged while disputing that he directed the object at her.
But Jackson enjoys close relationships with some of those he has sparred with. Former Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, who fought with him over a bill in 2021 and then made a Facebook post saying straight, white men are “too emotional” to be in politics, introduced Jackson at last month’s Democratic state convention that crowned him as the nominee.
Pelletier’s statement pivoted to the election, echoing claims that Platner and other Democrats have made about Collins’ personal wealth, which shot into the millions after she married former lobbyist and political strategist Tom Daffron in 2012. A BDN analysis from 2020 found no direct links between Daffron’s business and official actions that were scrutinized at that time.
“In the 40 years since he made a mistake as a 19-year-old kid, Troy has grown to be a passionate advocate for Mainers and dedicated his life to making things better for our state while Susan Collins has been in Washington enriching herself at our expense,” Pelletier said.
BDN writers Benjamin Kail, Daniel O’Connor and Paula Brewer contributed to this report.
Bangor Daily News investigative reporter Sawyer Loftus may be reached at sloftus@bangordailynews.com.
