This is what Lisa Pelkey said in reference to my wife yesterday, in front of two witnesses, both of whom will be willing to testify to this in court, if necessary.

Lisa Pelkey, a strident MAGIC supporter, who claims to be a co-owner of the Katahdin Press, the Katahdin region's only existing print weekly, had hoped to be able to "fry" my wife, Michelle, as a byproduct of a protection order which my wife had sought against an associate of Councilor Matt Polstein, who has harrassed both my wife and myself, by email and verbally, over opinion columns that he thought to be critical of Councilor Polstein and MAGIC. Oddly enough, my wife hadn't written any of the articles that he was ranting about.

The defendant's attorney, Mike Harman, an associate of MAGIC board member and attorney Dean Beaupain, came to court prepared to enter into evidence a 20-year-old police record pertaining to my wife, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, who has been clean for more than sixteen years, long before I met her.

I can't tell you with any certainty where Mr. Harman received his information, but I can tell you that, although the now defunct Community Press was unable to pay its own operating expenses, Lisa Pelkey, the owner, located the funds to hire an investigator to research the criminal histories of the Andersons.

She later discussed my wife's criminal history with several people, including Councilor David Nelson, another MAGIC supporter.

Since my wife and I have both been outspoken critics of the Millinocket Area Growth & Investment Council, I don't have to think very hard to know where the money came from.

I guess she wasn't able to find anything really juicy on me, although I do have some arrests from my anti-war movement days; and there was the matter of stealing a road sign when I was seventeen. Maybe there were a few other things, but nothing significant.

Perhaps Lisa could have saved some money, and been able to make her payroll, had she simply asked my wife about her past history. Michelle has made no secret of it, after all. It's been mentioned in our forums and nearly anyone who knows her is aware of it.

She is a Christian now. God has forgiven her and helped her to make a new life for herself, so it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. As her husband, I am proud of what she has been able to accomplish with her life, given a rough start that wasn't entirely of her doing; and disgusted that Lisa Pelkey, of all people, would stoop to such levels simply to score points with the MAGIC crowd.

I had thought that it was curious that, while the Katahdin Press apparently didn't find the petition drive important enough to send a reporter, they assigned two reporters to cover my wife's order of protection hearing. Both Lisa, a reporter for the Katahdin Press, and Daryl Kessler, the editor, were there; as were Councilors Matt Polstein and Gail Fanjoy.

I can imagine Lisa's disappointment when the judge refused to allow a 20-year-old criminal record to be entered into evidence.

"What to do now," she perhaps wondered.

She didn't have to think long. Today we were informed by a WABI reporter that Channel 5 had received an email detailing my wife's criminal history. The reporter wanted to know what a 20-year-old police record had to do with a petition drive to reduce MAGIC's funding.

That's an interesting question.

Editor's Note: I appreciate the sentiment behind the calls and the emails that we have received from people offering dirt on Lisa Pelkey, but we are not interested in dirty politics. We would rather set for ourselves a higher standard today than scrounging around looking for dirt in someone's distant past.

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