Tavern beating victim: Justice was not served

Jason Moreland (Lebanon Voice file photo)

BERWICK, Maine - Jason Moreland of Berwick has seen many of the wounds suffered from his brutal beating outside Trains Tavern on a winter night in 2012 heal, but the emotional pain inflicted by a justice system he calls dysfunctional is far from over.

More than two years after he says he was left to die in a snowbank after being knocked out cold by one man then kicked in the head as he lay unconscious on the ground by another, Moreland, 45, said he was stunned when Gilbert Perez accepted a plea deal and was sentenced on Feb. 21 to only a five-month jail term for his part in the beating.

“I wasn’t happy, I wanted a jury trial,” Moreland said last week. “If a jury saw the video and medical records, he would’ve gotten a tough sentence.”

Instead, prosecutor Kent Avery accepted a plea bargain in which Perez, 30, pleaded guilty to a single charge of aggravated assault.

Perez, of Moody, Maine, but who lists a Milton Mills PO Box as his mailing address, was sentenced to three years in jail but with all but five months suspended followed by two years of probation.

Moreland said when the verdict was announced he complained openly in court at its leniency just as he had done 18 months ago when the co-defendant in the case, Jason Mowry, 34, of Acton, pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault and received no jail time, only a suspended one-year sentence.

At that sentencing, York Superior Court Judge John O’Neil expressed outrage, not at Mowry’s part in the beating, but at Perez, who he said he saw in videotape kick an unconscious Moreland in the head so hard Perez' shoe came flying off his foot.

Moreland said he thought both Mowry and Perez should’ve gotten five years in prison for their part in the beating, but that when O’Neil made those comments in advance of Perez’ trial, he felt for sure Perez would get some serious jail time.

Moreland suffered severe injuries in the beating, including a broken upper and lower jaw, the loss of seven teeth, a shattered nose and eye socket and a broken cheek.

“The whole right side of my face is messed,” said Moreland, adding he’d loss 40 percent of the vision in his right eye.

He’s had three surgeries and faces two more.

In December he suffered a heart attack and had to have triply bypass surgery. He finally returns to work today after a three month recovery.

Moreland says he remembers nothing about the beating, only walking out of the bar toward his car before it happened.

He said when he and a friend first went into the tavern they had words with Perez and Mowry, who later bought them shots.

After an hour or so Moreland and his friend got into a minor skirmish with the pair and left, he said. Moreland said he was walking out toward his car with a barmaid when it happened and that was the last thing he remembered before coming to and realizing immediately his jaw was broken.

He hasn’t seen the videotape but he wants to see it. He said now that the criminal case is complete he will be suing Trains.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” he said.