State Troopers respond to Town Hall for reports of an assault

Town appeals board chair Deborah Dorey Wilson, left, fronts up against town resident Teri Poirier, unseen, in the doorway of the Lebanon Selectmen's Office Thursday. Paul Philbrick, who ordered the video shut down, is far right. (Youtube screen capture)

LEBANON, Maine - State Troopers responded to Lebanon Town Hall on Thursday night after they were called to investigate a possible assault that occurred during a regularly scheduled selectmen's meeting.

Two troopers arrived around 6 p.m. to sort through any statements made by the involved parties, which appear on the town's youtube government channel to be Lebanon Appeals Board member Deborah Dorey Wilson and town resident Teri Poirier, both of whom were on the agenda.

The live-streamed youtube feed shows the incident unfolding as Poirier opens the closed door to the selectmen's chambers at the 16-minute mark and is told by Selectboard Chair Chuck Russell that there's no room due to the fire code capacity. Russell adds that she'll have to wait a few minutes for folks to leave and that another person on the agenda is ahead of her, too.

Poirier then withdraws but leaves the door to the room open, so she can listen. As Poirier stands outside the vestibule a few moments later, Russell asks Wilson to close the door.

"You can't close the door," Poirier loudly complains as she crosses the vestibule. "It's a public meeting."

Wilson than approaches the door to shut it, and fills the doorway so Poirier is out of picture frame as Wilson appears to square up in a confrontational stance.

As the commotion continues and grows louder, several in the meeting room start shouting as Poirier yells, "Get off of me, get off of me."

A few seconds later as other people block out the view of both Wilson and Poirier, you can hear Poirier yells, "That's assault, that's assault."

Moments later Selectmen's Secretary Lynn Davis-Gilmore turns off the live feed at the direction of Selectman Paul Philbrick, she told The Rochester Voice today.

Asked to describe what happened, Wilson told The Rochester Voice today, "Acting on the Chairman's request I went to shut the meeting room door."

She refused, however, to say whether or not she had physical contact with Poirier.

Meanwhile, State Police, Poirier, Russell and Philbrick have not returned phone calls and/or emails from The Voice.

As of this afternoon the video stream had gotten over 1,400 views.

It can be viewed here.

This story will be updated.