New Gloucester Planning Board member Mark Leighton, 58, was arrested by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office on May 27 after firing multiple shots at a neighbor riding an ATV on Leighton’s property.

Sgt. James Ambrose and Deputy George Bernier arrested Leighton on the evening of Wednesday, May 27, and charged him with reckless conduct with a firearm, a Class C crime, according to Capt. Don Goulet.

Goulet said the ATV driver was trespassing on Leighton’s 41 Tyler Ave. property around 6:15 p.m., when Leighton shot at him several times with a handgun. Goulet declined to name the ATV driver.

“The one on the ATV was trespassing,” Goulet said.

The driver was not hit, Goulet said. Leighton was booked at the Cumberland County Jail at 9 p.m. that evening, and released at 3:30 p.m. on May 28 after posting $160 in bail. A Class C conviction could result in a maximum of five years in prison.

Leighton’s court date has been set for July 15. He could not be reached for comment.

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Jean Libby, the chairwoman of the New Gloucester Planning Board, declined to comment on the incident.

Leighton, a former New Gloucester selectman, was indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury on a felony theft charge in January 2012 stemming from an incident that occurred in October 2011.

According to Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Naldo Gagnon, Leighton, whose term on the board ended in 2012, was summonsed for Class C theft by unauthorized taking. The summons came after Leighton’s sister, Kathy Ramsdell, also of New Gloucester, reported to police that Leighton towed her 1994 Ford Bronco without her permission from 150 Lewiston Road in New Gloucester.

Ramsdell reported seeing her Bronco being towed away by Leighton in the back of a flat-bed trailer, Gagnon said. He then took it to a scrap metal yard and was compensated for the metal. She also reported to police the vehicle had been stored on the property for several years.

Leighton has lived and worked in New Gloucester his entire life.


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