WESTBROOK – With a request for a permanent protection from harassment order against a former city official denied, Mayor Colleen Hilton said this week she hopes the issue is behind her.

Following a hearing April 26 in Cumberland County District Court, Judge Jane Bradley concluded that the evidence presented by Hilton against former Finance Director Susan Rossignol did not constitute harassment. Because of that, Bradley denied the complaint for protection from harassment and terminated a temporary order.

Rossignol was served with the temporary protection order in March, after Hilton filed a harassment complaint in court. At the same time, police issued a criminal trespass notice to Rossignol, banning her from City Hall. Rossignol said this week she would pursue having that ban lifted, as well.

In her complaint, Hilton claimed that Rossignol behaved in a disruptive and intimidating manner in the months following the mayor’s inauguration, at which Hilton announced she would not be reappointing Rossignol, the city’s finance director for 32 years.

Westbrook has a strong-mayor form of government, which stipulates that the mayor must reappoint department heads annually. Hilton also did not reappoint the fire chief and recreation director.

Rossignol issued a statement this week, refuting the claims Hilton made in her complaint. She admitted returning to City Hall to meet with employees after being laid off.

“I did check on my staff of many years to see how they were doing and if I could be of help with anything,” she wrote.

However, she wrote that she didn’t feel as though she was acting inappropriately by coming into City Hall, by asking to be considered for the newly created chief financial officer position or by approaching Hilton’s family members and “telling them how I felt about what Colleen had done.”

Hilton said in the complaint that, on more than one occasion, Rossignol approached her or her family members saying the mayor “ruined my life.”

“My character has been tarnished with these allegations,” Rossignol wrote.

According to Bradley’s ruling, harassment is defined as “three or more acts of intimidation, confrontation, physical force or the threat of physical force … that are made with the intention of causing fear, intimidation or damage to property.”

“I hope this allows Sue to move on with her life,” Hilton said Tuesday about the ruling. “My goal is to protect my family and the people around me.”

A lifelong resident of Westbrook, Rossignol said Wednesday that the fallout of the protection order has made her feel ostracized in her own community.

“I just want to be able to walk down the street or into church and have people say hello again,” she said.