The Maine Attorney General’s Office has filed legal action against a Florida woman accused of yelling a racially charged expletive and threatening to hit another woman with her vehicle in Kennebunkport.
Vicki Lush, 66, was outside a seafood restaurant on June 6 when she threatened a 40-year-old Korean woman from Massachusetts, whose name was not released, according to the complaint.
Lush called the woman a “foreigner,” and told her to go back to “your country,” the complaint states. When the woman said “you wouldn’t say this to a white person,” Lush allegedly called her a “Chinese [expletive],” threatened to hit her with her vehicle and swerved her van at the woman.
The civil rights enforcement action is a civil filing under the Maine Civil Rights Act, which prohibits violence, threats of violence and property damage against any person motivated by their race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.
Under it, the state will ask a judge to issue an injunction prohibiting Lush from having any contact with the victim, from violating the Maine Civil Rights Act in the future, and fine Lush up to $5,000 for each violation.
Lush could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.
Kennebunkport police investigated the incident and forwarded their report to local prosecutors, said police Chief Craig Sanford. They interviewed at least two witnesses and reviewed security footage from a nearby business. Sanford said they also spoke with the victim, who lives in Massachusetts.
The York County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to questions about whether they’re considering criminal charges.
Sanford said the department forwarded the case to the AG’s office “because we felt there was some hate involved.” He estimated local police have only responded to three civil rights cases like this in the last 12 years.
“This is a rarity here,” Sanford said.
Civil rights enforcement actions are rarely filed by the Attorney General’s Office. An order was filed last year against 61-year-old William Rowe in Freeport, who was accused of threatening a Black man for eating at a pizza restaurant with a white woman. He confronted the Black man with the barrel of a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, visible under his left arm pit, and later pointed it in his direction.
In 2021, the AG’s office filed another complaint against 47-year-old Troy Sprague in Portland who threatened an Asian-American woman and her 12-year-old daughter while they were in their car waiting on an oil service on Forest Avenue. He told the woman to “go back to your country,” later jumping over the guardrail separating the service station from the sidewalk and kicking her partially open car window. He broke her rearview mirror, causing debris to fly into the car and hit her daughter.
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