BROWNFIELD PAIR ENJOINED OVER RACIALLY MOTIVATED ASSAULTS

April 11, 2003

APRIL 11, 2003

CONTACT: LEANNE ROBBIN, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
207-626-8581

Attorney General Steven Rowe announced today that the Maine Superior Court
granted the Attorney General's request for a preliminary injunction under the Maine Civil Rights Act against Roseanne Hinds and Frank Warren of Brownfield following a full hearing Thursday in South Paris. Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin showed that in April 2001, Hinds and Warren threatened students at Fryeburg Academy using racial epithets and that Hinds assaulted two of the students on the campus.  Hinds later pled no contest and was found guilty of the assaults.  In August 2002, Hinds and Warren assaulted a 19-year old African-American woman who had come to their home to speak with their niece.  The assault on this woman, like the assaults on the Fryeburg Academy students, was racially motivated. The court's order prohibits Hinds and Warren from entering the Fryeburg Academy campus or coming within 150 feet of any of the victims or their families. 

Robbin said, "Despite what many of us would like to believe, hate violence
exists in our schools and communities.  We will continue to aggressively
enforce the Maine Civil Rights Act and to work with Civil Rights Teams in
schools to make Maine a safer place for everyone."