Maine Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson was charged with assault after punching a man in 1988, while a police report says his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, who is also reportedly his second cousin and the mother of his two children, told an officer at the time that Jackson had pushed her around.
The Bangor Daily News was the first to report Wednesday on the nearly four-decade-old case, citing a Fort Kent Police Department report and handwritten witness statement. Jackson, who was 19 at the time, does not dispute assaulting the man, while both he and Pelletier deny that he was ever violent toward her.
“Nearly [40] years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”
The incident unfolded shortly before 2 a.m. on March 12, 1988, at a home on Market Street in Fort Kent, according to the records cited by the Bangor Daily News. Jackson knocked on the door and was told by someone inside to leave, but he refused. The victim later told police that Jackson then “kicked the door in.”
The victim’s statement said one of Jackson’s friends tried unsuccessfully to stop him before Jackson confronted the man. According to the police report and the victim’s statement, Jackson grabbed the man by the throat and took a swing at him, striking his glasses and cutting his face.
The victim said he restrained Jackson until one of Jackson’s friends got between the two men. The victim also told police that Jackson warned him to “stay away from Lana Pelletier or else.”
Pelletier, identified in the police report as Jackson’s ex-girlfriend, allegedly told the responding officer afterward that Jackson had pushed her and that she intended to seek “cease harassment papers.” The Bangor Daily News found no record that she ultimately sought such an order. Pelletier now disputes making those statements.
“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me, and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago,” Pelletier said. “Troy and I have built a life and family together, and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father.”
The Bangor Daily News withheld the identity of the man because he was the victim of a crime. When contacted Wednesday, he declined to discuss the incident and criticized the newspaper for revisiting the decades-old case, telling a reporter he was “digging deep for a bunch of bull——.”
The officer who handled the case also wrote that Jackson had previously been involved in other “incidents” in Fort Kent, although he had not been charged in connection with them.
Records that remain from the case show Jackson agreed to pay the man $50. A May 1988 edition of the Bangor Daily News also listed Jackson as having been charged with assault and having paid the fine.
Jackson, now 58, does not have a criminal record, according to a background check conducted by the Bangor Daily News. The newspaper said the 1988 case was the only criminal matter it located involving Jackson in state court records. The underlying court file has since been destroyed under the judicial system’s records-retention schedule.
The report comes after Jackson and Pelletier’s relationship drew scrutiny during the Senate campaign. The Maine Wire reported in July that Pelletier is Jackson’s second cousin and that the two share a set of great-grandparents, citing genealogical records. Jackson and Pelletier, who are both from Allagash, have never married but have been together for roughly 40 years and have two adult sons together. Older official biographies have referred to Pelletier as Jackson’s wife, while his current campaign materials call her his partner.
Their unmarried status also raised questions about whether her finances would be included in Jackson’s Senate financial disclosures, while Townhall’s Matt Vespa reported at the time that Jackson had not yet filed a disclosure or requested an extension. The Bangor Daily News separately reported that Jackson paid roughly $4,600 in late state income taxes last year after a tax lien over debt dating to 2020, and a Republican lawmaker filed a 2023 ethics complaint alleging Jackson misrepresented his residency.
The Washington Post reported in July that Jackson repeatedly yelled and cursed at fellow lawmakers, including during a 2021 dispute with then-state Sen. Heather Sanborn over a prescription drug bill in which he threw a water bottle. A former colleague said Jackson was “an inch from her nose, screaming and hollering and haranguing her,” while multiple former lawmakers said Sanborn left the Senate that day and did not return for several days. Campaign adviser BJ McCollister acknowledged there were “moments when he let his frustration get the better of him” but denied his conduct amounted to intimidation. Jackson later said there “isn’t going to be anything” that sinks his campaign.
Jackson’s legislative record has also drawn attention since he became the nominee. In 2023, he voted for LD 535, which became law and allows qualifying 16- and 17-year-olds diagnosed with gender dysphoria to obtain nonsurgical “gender-affirming” hormone therapy without parental consent after discussing the treatment with a parent or guardian who refused to support it and providing written consent. Jackson also voted in support of taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries involving minors and repeatedly voted against measures intended to protect girls’ sports, including LD 1337, LD 868, LD 233, and LD 1134.
