A Bath couple is the target of a civil rights complaint after they allegedly harassed their Black neighbors because of their race.

Attorney General Aaron Frey has filed a civil rights complaint against Andrew and Ranada Pinkham, 44 and 43, respectively, who Frey said targeted their Black neighbors and caused them severe emotional distress. The neighbors are originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to a press release from Frey’s office, Frey filed a civil complaint against the Pinkhams in Sagadahoc County Court under the Maine Civil Rights Act, alleging they berated their neighbors with racist and xenophobic language and other forms of harassment.

“The victims in this case were relentlessly targeted in their home because of who they are and where they come from,” Frey said. “When the Legislature amended the Maine Civil Rights Act in 2023, this was exactly the type of conduct it intended to prohibit.”

According to the complaint, the Pinkhams have repeatedly been hostile, using racist slurs against the Congolese family ever since the family moved in next door in April 2024. The complaint alleges the victims’ children are afraid to play outside due to the Pinkhams’ aggression and hostility toward the family.

The Pinkhams denied the allegations on Thursday during a brief interview outside their home. The couple said they had called their landlord with a noise complaint but that the complaint was never followed up on. The couple said they have lived in the neighborhood for two years and “kept to themselves.”

Andrew Pinkham denied using racial slurs against the family or their children as alleged in the complaint. The Pinkhams said the Congolese family have since moved out of the apartment.

According to the complaint, the Pinkhams allegedly banged on the shared interior walls adjoining the neighbors’ apartment at all hours of the night and day. Also included in the complaint was a cell phone recording of Ranada Pinkham yelling racial slurs at the neighbors, saying she couldn’t wait for them to come out.

The attorney general asked that the courts bar the Pinkhams from contacting their neighbors.

The Maine Civil Rights Act prohibits using violence or the threat of violence against any person, or engaging in conduct that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress that is motivated by bias against the person’s race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

The newly amended section of the Maine Civil Rights Act prohibits causing a person emotional distress, with any violation a Class D crime, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

The complaint was first handled by the Bath Police Department, which responded to a disorderly conduct complaint on May 26 this year on Bluff Road involving the Pinkhams and the Congolese family.

The responding officer’s investigation showed a potential civil rights violation and two civil rights officers in the department were contacted, police said. These officers further investigated the incident and contacted the attorney general’s office, which police Chief Andrew Booth said is standard practice and “per policy” in these cases.

Booth also confirmed that the Pinkhams are longtime Bath residents and have a history with the police, though he did not see any past civil rights violations involving the pair.

Booth said that the police portion of the investigation involved issuing the harassment notice to the Pinkhams, while the attorney general’s office took over the civil rights violation.

“We take these types of violations very seriously and are thankful for the AG’s office work in seeking justice for the victims in this case,” Booth said.

The complaint follows another civil rights violation that the attorney general filed in March against two Harpswell residents, William and Hayden Deary, for allegedly spray-painting antisemitic symbols and phrases on public road signs in Bath, Brunswick, Harpswell and Topsham.

The complaint also detailed that Hayden Deary was affiliated with the National Socialist Club by his own admission. The club is a New England neo-Nazi group also known as NSC-131, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

In the past four years, he said, Bath police referred seven cases to the attorney general’s civil rights division. The cases ranged from racial and homophobic slurs to online harassment and threatening behavior. He was unsure if the cases from previous years had led to civil rights violation cases at the attorney general level.

The Times Record staff writer Kristian Moravec contributed to this report.