WEST BATH — A judge on Monday dismissed a protection order sought by the three women known as the Freeport Flag Ladies against a man who they say harassed them.
Elaine Greene, Carmen Footer and Joann Miller each testified before Judge Beth Dobson in West Bath District Court that James Roux III harassed them on multiple occasions dating to 2014, including during last year’s Sept. 11 remembrance event.
The three women, who have become local celebrities since they began standing on Main Street in Freeport every Tuesday morning after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, waving flags at passing motorists, received a temporary protection order against Roux last month. Monday’s hearing was to determine whether to extend the protection order for as long as one year.
After a full day of testimony, Dobson ruled shortly after 4 p.m. that there was not enough evidence to prove that Roux harassed or intimidated the women. Dobson did, however, encourage Roux to find a more civil way to express his opinions and told both parties to focus on “what unites us.”
Roux, speaking outside the courthouse after the hearing, said he was happy with the decision.
“I didn’t harass them. I don’t harass people,” he said. “My issue was never with them, it’s with the use of 9/11 to promote an ideology that is antithetical to mine.”
Roux’s father, James Roux Jr., was among the nearly 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks. He was a passenger aboard American Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the World Trade Center. Roux was a teenager at the time.
Greene, speaking on behalf of the flag ladies, was visibly upset and on the verge of tears as she spoke after the hearing.
“We didn’t take this lightly. We let several things pass before taking this action,” she said of the protection order. “We stood up against a bully and look what happened. Is that what we tell our children?”
At the hearing, the three women testified that Roux had been harassing them to the point where they feared for their safety. The harassment began, the women said, when Roux drove his car past their home in downtown Freeport in July 2014 and confronted Footer on the porch of the house.
“I tried to get around him. He got a little aggressive, he threw his arms out, he’s shouting at me,” Footer testified. “I felt quite intimidated, I must say. He looked angry; I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, to be honest.”
Footer, Greene and Miller also testified about Roux’s appearance at Freeport’s Sept. 11 memorial event last year. Roux was arrested after he disrupted the ceremony. He later wrote that he was offended by the event because of its pro-military point of view. The charges against him were dropped.
The women then testified that on Dec. 1, Roux threatened them at a local coffee shop after he and his mother, Liza Moore, stood on the same street corner as the flag ladies one Tuesday morning to demonstrate their support for refugees.
Moore and Roux said they felt compelled to do something to show support for refugees and they thought that showing up at the same spot as the flag ladies was a good way to get attention.
Roux’s attorney, Michael Whipple, questioned each of the flag ladies during their testimony and tried to establish that his client was merely exercising his free-speech rights the same way the women had been exercising theirs for 14 years.
When it was his turn, Roux took the stand and offered different versions of the events. He said he never confronted Footer on her porch, but did tell her that their flag demonstrations bothered him. As for the altercation in the coffee shop, Roux said he was upset, but only because a man had confronted him.
Roux said after Monday’s hearing that he has no plans to engage with the women again.
Greene left the courthouse fuming. “The system was not served today,” she said.
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