Woman says she was injured in alleged assault by appeals board chair

YouTube screen shot shows Appeals Board Chair Deborah Dorey Wilson, red shirt, moving to close the door on resident Terri Poirier during Thursday's selectmen's meeting.

LEBANON, Maine - The Lebanon woman who alleges she was the victim of an assault by the town's appeals board chair during Thursday's selectmen's meeting said on Sunday that the incident left her with an injured right foot.

Town resident Terri Poirier, who was on the agenda for the meeting, said the door to the meeting room was closed when she arrived at around 5:45 p.m., so she opened the door to enter, but was told it was at capacity. She then left the room but kept the door open so she could listen.

As she listened to the meeting from the Town Hall lobby she said she heard Appeals Board Chair Deborah Dorey Wilson ask Selectmen Chair Chuck Russell if he wanted the door closed.

Moments later he asks her to do so, which prompted Poirier to enter the room telling Russell, "You can't close the door, it's a public meeting."

The live-streamed YouTube feed shows the incident unfolding at the 16-minute mark.

After Wilson approached the door to shut it, Poirier said she leaned up against the door to keep it open and was violently chest-bumped by Wilson.

"You wanna get in my face?" Wilson said as she fronted up to Poirier just prior to the altercation.

"I went up to the door to keep the door open," Poirier said. "She came at me, chest bumped me, and pinned me between her and the door. She then reached up over the door and tried to pull the door shut with me still standing in the way."

During the commotion Poirier yells, "Get off of me, get off of me" and a few seconds later, "That's assault, that's assault."

Poirier's body is mostly out of camera view once the altercation begins.

She said the incident left her with a sore right foot from being folded backwards. A person at the meeting helped separate them.

Poirier said once the two were separated she immediately called State Police to report an assault, which was responded to by Troopers Ryan S. Dubois and Benjamin Handzel.

She said the two troopers took statements from her, Wilson, Selectman Ernest Lizotte, Russell and the person who helped separate them.

The live streaming video was shut down during the melee after Selectmen's Secretary Lynn Davis-Gilmore was told to do so at the direction of Selectman Paul Philbrick.

Philbrick said he made the decision to turn off the live feed on his own.

"I take the responsibility for having the camera turned off," he told The Rochester Voice.

Philbrick said he made the move to "calm down the situation," but his voice is not audible as he points to the video hardware and directs Davis-Gilmore to turn it off.

Neither Troopers Dubois nor Handzel had returned a Friday call as of this story's posting. Russell has also not returned a phone call.

The video can be viewed here.