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Maine Attorney General Files Civil Rights Complaint in Alleged Hate Crime

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has filed a complaint under Maine’s Civil Rights Act in an incident police have called a hate crime.

Mills says Jaime Hoffman was charged with assault in the incident, in which he allegedly yelled racially charged epithets at a group of five students waiting for a school bus outside Casco Bay High School in Portland. She is asking the court for an order.

“Enjoining this fellow from ever using physical force or violence to attack these victims or violate anybody else’s civil rights,” she says.

Mills says Hoffman tackled a female student after she tried to de-escalate the situation. Hoffman pleaded not guilty to the assault charge in February.

“These kids’ parents have a right to assume that their children are going to be safe while they are waiting for the school b,us and these kids themselves have a right to feel safe in our country,” she says.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.