The attorney for Maine House Speaker Mark Eves is claiming Gov. Paul LePage violated state law as well as federal law in an amended complaint against the Governor filed in federal court Friday afternoon.

In July, Eves filed the original civil complaint at U.S. District Court in Portland in connection with his firing by the board of directors of Good Will- Hinckley, which runs a private school to which Eves had earlier been named president.

Motivated by “personal rage, vindictiveness and partisan malice,” the governor threatened to withhold more than $500,000 from the school unless it ditched Eves, continuing a “well-known pattern of using his powers as governor to bully and intimidate anyone who dares to disagree with him,” David Webbert, Eves’ attorney, said in the lawsuit, according to a July 31 story by Associated Press writer David Sharp.

The amended complaint accuses LePage of violating state law by blocking Eves’s hiring by Good Will- Hinckley, which operates a charter school.

A state panel found that the acting education commissioner withheld a quarterly payment from the school as LePage’s administration pressured Good Will-Hinckley to rescind its job offer, according to the Associated Press.

LePage has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney told the AP he was aware of Eves’ plan to amend and would respond in court papers.

The amended complaint, filed at U.S. District Court in Portland Friday, alleges LePage, “personally notified both the chair of the Board of Hinckley and its most important benefactor, the Harold Alfond Foundation, that he was withholding state funding of $1.06 million ($530,000 a year for the next two years) budgeted for Hinckley’s residential programming as along as Speaker Eves remained as its newly hired president.” The suit claims LePage knew that the loss of state funds would jeopardize about $2.7 million in private funding from the Harold Alfond Foundation.

It also claims that LePage acted out of unrestrained partisan rage and intentionally coerced Hinckley, using the leverage of state finds, into firing Eves. The suit further states that the governor intentionally interfered with the freedom of a private, non-profit organization to make the fundamental decision of who should be its president.

Eves was fired June 24, after which funding was restored.

The suit quotes LePage on July 29 responding in the affirmative to a reporter who had asked about whether he had threatened to withhold money from the school.

The suit claims LePage’s actions is part of a pattern of abusing his power as governor to bully and intimidate those who don’t follow his orders.

“LePage’s continuing abuses of power threaten to destroy the ability of Maine’s citizen Legislature to serve its vital constitutional function as an independent check on the power of the executive branch,” the suit claims.

Webbert pointed out that the suit is filed against LePage, and not the state. The suit claims LePage violated federal civil rights law.

Under the state claim, Eves alleges LePage wrongfully interfered with Eves employment contract.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected]. The Associated Press contributed to this report.