By: Ryan Michaels | The Maine Mirror

BERWICK, Maine — What began with an encounter inside the Berwick Police Department on September 12, 2025, has turned into an almost yearlong effort to obtain a usable copy of a public record that Berwick officials later said, on the record, would be provided.

As of August 31, 2026, I am still waiting.

The timeline tells much of the story itself.

September 12, 2025: The Incident Behind the Request

On September 12, 2025, I went to the Berwick Police Department with a written complaint.

At the time, Denise Dunn was an administrative assistant for the department. After I handed over my complaint, I witnessed Dunn discard it directly onto the floor.

I viewed the action as dismissive and highly disrespectful, particularly because I was attempting to formally raise concerns with a public agency.

Rather than asking anyone to simply accept my characterization of what occurred, I sought something more objective: the video footage documenting the encounter.

I submitted a request under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, commonly known as FOAA, seeking the recording.

September 16: The Issue Goes Before the Select Board

Four days after the incident, I appeared before the Berwick Select Board.

The Town’s own September 16, 2025 meeting minutes document my appearance in unusually specific detail.

According to those minutes, I presented a complaint to the Select Board concerning what I alleged was harassment by Town employees. The minutes further document that I provided Chair Mike Latterer with a printed exhibit summary, Exhibits A through K, a flash drive containing those exhibits in full, and video evidence from September 12.

The minutes specifically describe that video as documenting Administrative Assistant Denise Dunn “throwing his written complaint on the ground.”

That language is significant because it is not my present-day characterization of what happened. It appears in the Town of Berwick’s own official meeting minutes.

The minutes also document four areas I asked the Select Board to address, including confirmation that my harassment complaint was officially filed and under review, written answers to questions I had submitted, investigation of alleged FOAA violations and other concerns documented in my exhibits, and review of certain salary records.

(Official Berwick Select Board minutes from September 16, 2025, documenting Ryan Michaels’ presentation to the Board and stating that materials provided included Exhibits A–K, a flash drive, and video evidence “documenting Administrative Assistant Denise Dunn throwing his written complaint on the ground.”)

This was therefore not an issue quietly raised in an isolated email.

The complaint, supporting materials, and existence of video evidence were placed directly before Berwick’s governing board and memorialized in its official minutes.

Then a Disc Arrived

Sometime after that September 16 meeting, I received the Town’s response to my request for the police department footage.

But the manner in which it arrived stood out to me.

Based on my experience making public-record requests, I was accustomed to receiving an acknowledgment followed by information concerning the anticipated time and cost of fulfilling a request. In this instance, however, a disc was mailed to me along with a bill.

More importantly, when I attempted to access what the Town had provided, the recording did not function…at all. Purely a black screen.

Whatever procedural questions might exist about how the request was handled, there was now a much simpler practical problem:

I had requested a video, was billed for its production, and the copy provided to me did not work.

So I went back to the Select Board.

October 7: Showing the Board the Defective Copy

At the October 7, 2025 Select Board meeting, I again appeared during public comment.

This time, I brought the defective copy with me.

I explained directly to the Board what had happened: I had requested the footage, received the disc and an invoice, and was unable to properly access the recording that had been provided.

There was no need for the Town to rely upon a later recollection of my complaint. I raised the problem publicly and on camera.

(October 7, 2025 Berwick Select Board meeting footage showing Ryan Michaels addressing the Board during public comment, presenting the defective copy of the requested September 12 police department footage, and explaining that the recording provided by the Town did not work.)

What happened next is one of the most important pieces of this timeline.

The Chair Directs the Town Manager to Fix It

During that same public exchange, Select Board Chair Mike Latterer received my materials and flash drive and addressed the problem directly.

Latterer instructed Town Manager Arthur Capello to ensure that I received a working copy.

Capello agreed that he would do so.

Latterer also indicated that I would hear back from the Town.

This was not a private assurance made during an undocumented conversation. It happened during a public Select Board meeting and was captured on video.

(October 7, 2025 Berwick Select Board meeting footage showing Chair Mike Latterer receiving Ryan Michaels’ exhibits and flash drive, directing Town Manager Arthur Capello to ensure Michaels receives a working copy of the requested recording, Capello agreeing to do so, and Latterer indicating that Michaels would hear back from the Town.)

At that point, the issue appeared remarkably straightforward.

The Town had provided a recording.

I reported that the copy did not work.

The chair of the Select Board directed the town manager to ensure that I received a working copy.

The town manager agreed.

And I was told I would hear back.

That was in October 2025.

Months Pass, and the Recording Remains Unresolved

The working copy never arrived.

As the months passed, the unresolved recording became one of the reasons I continued attempting to attend Select Board meetings.

That eventually created another issue altogether: my ability to remotely access the meetings.

On August 4, 2026, I attempted to remotely attend a Berwick Select Board meeting but remained in the Zoom waiting room.

After I contacted the Town about what happened, the response did not initially come directly from a Town official.

It came from the Town’s outside counsel.

On August 12, attorney Matt Tarasevich of Bernstein Shur emailed me, copying Town Manager Arthur Capello and another member of the law firm.

Tarasevich wrote that “the town has requested that we respond” to my inquiries concerning remote access.

He also confirmed that remote access to the August 4 meeting had not worked as expected because of a technical problem that the Board was unaware of and said the problem had since been remedied.

(August 12, 2026 email from Bernstein Shur attorney Matt Tarasevich stating that the Town asked the firm to respond to Michaels’ remote-access inquiries, acknowledging that remote access to the August 4 Select Board meeting was not working as expected because of a technical problem, and stating that the problem had been remedied.)

That response raised additional questions for me.

If the problem was technical, what specifically had failed? When was it discovered? Who discovered it? Who had been responsible for monitoring the Zoom waiting room? And what should a member of the public do if the same problem happened again?

I sent those questions back the following day.

(August 13, 2026 email from Ryan Michaels to attorney Matt Tarasevich, copied to Town Manager Arthur Capello and Bernstein Shur, asking seven specific questions about the August 4 remote-access failure, including what caused it, when it was discovered, who was responsible for monitoring the Zoom meeting, and what members of the public should do if the problem occurs again.)

But the most important portion of that email was not about Zoom.

It was about why I had been trying so persistently to attend these meetings in the first place.

I Put the Reason in Writing

In the same August 13 email, I explicitly connected my continued attempts to attend Select Board meetings to the unresolved September 12 recording.

I wrote:

“For several meetings now, I have been attempting to appear before the Select Board to follow up on an issue that remains unresolved: the video recording associated with the September 12, 2025 incident involving Denise Dunn and my complaint.”

I reminded the Town and its attorney that I had previously raised the issue publicly and that, during a recorded Select Board meeting, the Town had acknowledged that the version provided to me was not functioning properly.

I also reminded them that I understood the Town had agreed to provide a usable recording.

Then I offered what remains perhaps the simplest solution to this entire chain of events:

Provide it.

(Continuation of Michaels’ August 13, 2026 email explaining that the unresolved September 12, 2025 recording was one of the primary reasons he had repeatedly attempted to attend Select Board meetings, reminding the Town that a usable copy had previously been promised, and asking the Town to simply provide the corrected recording.)

I wrote that rather than requiring me to repeatedly attend meetings, send follow-up emails and communicate through outside counsel regarding my ability to access those meetings, the Town could simply provide the usable copy of the September 12 recording that I had previously been told would be corrected and provided.

I also made my objective explicit:

“My objective remains straightforward: obtain the recording the Town previously indicated would be corrected and provided, and have a reliable means of accessing public Select Board meetings when I need to address unresolved Town matters.”

And I closed that portion of the correspondence with another opportunity to resolve the issue:

“If the Town can simply provide the promised recording now, I would welcome resolving that portion of this matter immediately.”

August 31, 2026: Still Waiting

Today is August 31, 2026.

The underlying encounter occurred on September 12, 2025.

The Town’s own September 16 meeting minutes document that I brought the matter, exhibits, a flash drive and video evidence before the Select Board.

On October 7, I returned and demonstrated that the copy of the requested recording provided to me did not function properly.

During that public meeting, the chair instructed the town manager to ensure I received a working copy.

The town manager agreed.

I was told I would hear back.

Months later, after encountering problems remotely accessing another Select Board meeting, I again explained—in writing, to both the Town and its outside counsel—that the unresolved recording was one of the reasons I continued attempting to appear before the Board.

And I again offered the easiest possible resolution.

Send the working copy.

Nearly a year after the underlying incident, I still do not have it.

This Is Why Public Records Matter

There is a broader issue here than one disc, one recording or one encounter at the Berwick Police Department.

Public records allow residents to independently evaluate what happened when there is a disagreement between a citizen and their government.

That principle is especially important here.

I do not want readers to simply take my word for what Denise Dunn did with my complaint.

There was video.

I requested it.

The Town’s own official minutes subsequently described the evidence I presented as video documenting Dunn “throwing his written complaint on the ground.”

The Town later sent me a copy of the requested footage that did not function properly.

I publicly reported that problem.

The Select Board chair publicly directed the town manager to make sure I received a working copy.

The town manager agreed.

And nearly 11 months after that public exchange, I am still waiting.

That sequence can be evaluated independently of anyone’s opinion of me, Denise Dunn, the police department, the Select Board or the Town of Berwick.

The documents and public meeting recordings speak for themselves.

A Simple Question Remains

There is an almost circular quality to what has happened.

I sought a public record because I wanted objective documentation of an interaction with a Town employee.

When the copy provided did not work, I went before the Select Board.

The Board publicly directed that I receive a working copy.

When that still did not happen, I continued trying to attend Select Board meetings to seek an answer.

When I subsequently experienced difficulty remotely accessing one of those meetings, the Town referred my inquiries to outside counsel.

I then explained to that attorney—and again to the town manager copied on the correspondence—that one of the reasons I was trying to attend was because the original recording still had not been provided in usable form.

And once again, I asked the Town to simply send it.

This article does not need to declare why that has happened.

It does not need to speculate about anyone’s motives.

The documented chronology raises a much simpler question.

On October 7, 2025, the chair of the Berwick Select Board instructed the town manager, on the record, to ensure that I received a working copy. The town manager agreed.

It is now August 31, 2026.

Where is the recording?

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