Former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling watches jury selection as a civil eviction case against him got underway Monday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Testimony in a civil eviction trial against former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling homed in on a key timeline in his defense Wednesday – that his landlord escalated efforts to evict him only after the tenants union Strimling founded began filing complaints against him with the city.

The Trelawny Tenants union filed several complaints shortly after the city’s rent control ordinance went into effect in June 2021, alleging their landlord, Geoffrey Rice, was unlawfully trying to raise rents by 10%.

Shortly after the complaint was filed, Rice escalated his efforts to evict Strimling, according to the defense.

But Rice, who in all spent about seven hours on the stand over two days, said his desire to evict the former mayor was unrelated to the union complaints. He said that the rent control ordinance was confusing and he corrected the violations. As of January, Rice was connected to 27 violations and has paid tenants thousands of dollars in back rent.

On its third day, the trial proceeded at a glacial pace. Attorneys Scott Dolan, who represents Strimling, and David Chamberlain, Rice’s lawyer, repeatedly questioned Rice in exceptional detail about the timeline.

When the jury took a break around 1:30 p.m., Superior Court Justice John O’Neil urged attorneys to move things along.

“We’re plowing the same ground over and over and over again,” said O’Neil. “The timing piece of this is really important. … We really need to just not ask the same question six or seven times.”

The trial is still set to conclude Thursday afternoon; Dolan has asked for more time.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING 

Rice first tried to get Strimling to move out in the spring of 2021 after the landlord fined him for leaving a window open during heating season. What Rice didn’t know at the time was that Strimling recorded that conversation. Dolan played it in court Wednesday.

“I had the heat off, completely off in my apartment, it had been 60 degrees for three days. As you know, I had a smell in my apartment … that’s why the window was open,” Strimling said in the recording.

“It makes sense from your point of view, yeah. If everybody in the building is saying the same thing, then I have all kinds of windows open,” said Rice on the tape.

Rice told the jury Wednesday that on the day the window was open it was 45 degrees outside, not 60.

Both attorneys pressed Rice on the purpose of the meeting. Rice said he wanted to serve Strimling with a notice for non-renewal. But in the recording, Strimling said he had initiated the meeting to talk about the window violation and was caught off guard when Rice brought up the lease.

“I was so upset in the meeting that I couldn’t listen, I couldn’t concentrate. I was just concerned with giving him the non-renewal and once I did that I felt liberated,” said Rice on the stand. “I still want to not have him be my tenant.”

In the afternoon, the defense called Wes Pelletier, a former tenant of the Trelawny Building who has been active in campaigning for rent control with the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

Former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, center, and other members of the Trelawny Tenants Union stand outside the building on Congress Street in Portland in January 2022. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Pelletier testified that he founded the Trelawny Tenants Union with Strimling and another tenant, Kennedy Johnson, in the spring of 2020 for two reasons: to create community in the building and “to find a way we could safely communicate with the landlord as a group.”

In it’s early days, Pelletier said, Rice met with the group several times in an effort to address their concerns, but eventually he cut off communication with the group.

“I no longer feel that (these meetings) are productive … rather than having friendly, understanding conversations about the situation, you refuse to take our answers for answers,” Rice wrote in a 2021 email that Pelletier read on the stand.

Pelletier testified that he repeatedly felt concerned that he would be evicted or that the building would be sold during his time living there.

“It seems like there is a complete lack of care for people who are living in the building,” he said.

David Chamberlain, an attorney for Geoffrey Rice, addresses the jury during the civil eviction trial against former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

During cross-examination, Chamberlain argued that Rice never tried to stop the group from meeting. And he questioned Pelletier’s motives for testifying at the trial.

“Did you set up a Gofundme page for Ethan Strimling’s legal defense in this case?” asked Chamberlain.

“That is correct,” said Pelletier.

“So, you’re a big supporter of Ethan Strimling?”

“I’m a big supporter of fighting this retaliation case.”