Jury comes down in favor of retired state trooper who sued agency for retaliation

Dec. 2—A nine-person federal jury awarded George Loder, a retired state police detective who accused his former employers of retaliating against him for reporting alleged illegal activity, $300,000 in compensatory damages.

The jury began deliberations just aver 1 p.m. Friday afternoon. One juror was dismissed after she reported to Justice Jon D. Levy that she feared she could not remain impartial. The jury heard four days of testimony in which George Loder's attorney, Cynthia Dill, tried to show that Loder reported what he believed were illegal information collection practices at a secretive police intelligence unit.

Loder, who was assigned in 2013 to the Maine Information and Analysis Center but was posted almost immediately to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Portland to assist in terrorism investigations, retired in March after taking a demotion to trooper.

The lawsuit centered on a few key months in 2018 when Loder was recalled from his federal position and reassigned to work in Augusta at the MIAC, where he was expected to perform background checks and other office-based tasks.

Loder alleged he was called back from the assignment because he reported what he believed were violations of federal privacy regulations that govern how police agencies should handle sensitive criminal intelligence while also protecting privacy rights.

One practice, the creation of a regular and detailed activity report, was of particular concern, Loder alleged. The MIAC activity report was a repository for documentation about every task performed by the staff there, and the reports sometimes contained the personal identifying information of people who did not commit a crime.

In one example, Dill elicited testimony of how the names and dates of birth of counselors at the Seeds of Peace camp in Otisfield were entered into the activity report. Dill argued that the activity report violated federal privacy laws, but state police officials repeatedly denied that the federal rules applied to the activity report database.

Loder alleged he was pulled from the federal task force, a prestigious assignment, because of the complaints. But state police officials testified that they pulled Loder because they were short-staffed and needed him to backfill for a MIAC detective who was retiring.

State police said they could not have possibly retaliated against Loder, because Loder had not made the complaints about allegedly illegal data collection and privacy violations before they pulled him back to Augusta.

Loder also alleged he was denied a lateral transfer to a detective's position in the Major Crimes Unit as punishment for his dissent and refusal to cooperate in what he believed was illegal activity at the MIAC. But state police witnesses testified that while it was true Loder was a detective and has specialized training, he was ineligible because he had once lied during an internal investigation into his conduct.

Prosecutors have to turn over any evidence that would undermine the credibility of a witness, including police officers, meaning Loder's past could come back to haunt him as he made arrests and was called to testify, giving defense attorneys an opportunity to criticize his trustworthiness.

This story will be updated.