WINDHAM — Town Councilor Jarrod Maxfield has provided what he says is a recording of his interaction last week with Councilor Donna Chapman during which he does not say he will “personally attack (her) next,” as she quoted him as saying, but Chapman said he must have edited the recording.
Chapman said Wednesday she is meeting with Interim Town Manager Don Gerrish and Police Chief Kevin Schofield next Friday to discuss the recording, which she has not heard.
Chapman and Maxfield have often verbally sparred at Town Council meetings and have accused each other of wrongdoing. Their latest disagreement stems from an incident just before a council meeting last week when Chapman, who said she felt threatened by Maxfield, pushed the panic button in council chambers to summon the police. Two Windham Police officers responded in emergency mode.
Chapman told the Lakes Region Weekly last week that during that conversation, Maxfield was “out of control” and told her, “I’m going to personally attack you next.”
In an interview Wednesday, she stood by her statement, saying, “He did say it.”
Maxfield played for the Lakes Region Weekly the recording, which he made on his phone, during which the “attack you next” line was not uttered. He did not want to supply a copy of the recording to the newspaper.
“By no means did I say that,” Maxfield said about Chapman’s quote. “I would directly refute that. It’s not what I said.”
He said he records conversations with Chapman and other town councilors “for my own protection” because he said they often tell “straight up lies.”
Chapman
Chapman said she questions why Maxfield secretly records councilors: “He had no permission from any of us. He knowingly and willing brought in a device to record and start a fight. To me, that’s entrapment.”
On the recording, Maxfield asks Chapman, “Don’t we have a problem with people attacking people personally?”
Chapman said, “I get it all the time,” to which Maxfield replied, “Really? People talk about your personal life here?”
When Chapman responded in the affirmative, Maxfield said, “They’re about to. They’re about to.”
In an interview Wednesday, he said he meant that because Chapman is running for reelection in the upcoming Nov. 5 election, people would be discussing her.
Maxfield also is up for re-election but is uncontested.
Maxfield is the owner of the Necessary Technology in Portland, a tech service and repair company he started in 2005.
“He is a computer expert,” Chapman said. “He’s very good at deleting things and denying things. I know what he said to me.”
Chapman said Schofield did not talk to her, Council Chairman Clayton Haskell or Council Vice Chairwoman Rebecca Cummings — the only councilors present during the interaction — last week. Cummings did not reply to a message from Lakes Region Weekly requesting a comment on the incident. She and Haskell routinely do not respond to requests for comments.
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