The chief of Maine Capitol Police, accused of assaulting a Hallowell police officer outside a bar in August and facing criminal charges, has stepped down.
Matthew Clancy, 62, of Sidney, resigned effective Oct. 8, Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said Friday.
Clancy had been on administrative leave following his arrest Aug. 2 on charges of assault and refusing to submit to arrest or detention. Through a lawyer, he has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Clancy allegedly grabbed and struck Hallowell police Officer Johnny Narvaez, who was parked outside the Quarry Tap Room on Water Street in Hallowell on Aug. 1 when he saw a crowd forming in front of the bar and restaurant.
Narvaez wrote in a police report that he saw a man, later identified as Clancy, in a “verbal altercation with security personnel and other patrons … yelling, being disorderly, and taunting patrons at the establishment.”
When Narvaez asked Clancy to leave, he refused, and grabbed Narvaez’s shoulder and struck him on the forehead with an open palm, according to the report, which described Clancy as intoxicated.
Narvaez pulled Clancy’s hands behind his back and began to escort him away from the crowd, his report states. But Clancy pulled his right arm away and a brief physical struggle ensued.
A security guard, Robert Magee, assisted Narvaez with holding Clancy’s arms while Clancy continued to resist being detained, Narvaez wrote. Narvaez and Magee then brought Clancy to the ground “for better control and officer safety.”
While doing so, Clancy struck his head on the pavement and sustained a minor laceration with visible bleeding, the report states.
Narvaez was eventually able to put Clancy in handcuffs, he wrote. While on the ground, Clancy said to Narvaez, “You are f—-d now, do you know who I am?” the report states.
The Hallowell Police Department released the report in response to a records request under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
Before the confrontation with Narvaez, Clancy had allegedly gotten into a fight with other bar patrons over him taking photographs without permission, prompting security staff at the bar to try to kick him out.
Clancy, through his lawyer David Bobrow, waived his arraignment, which had been scheduled for Sept. 29 at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta, and pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and refusing to submit to arrest or detention. Both criminal charges are Class D misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year of imprisonment.
Capitol Police Lt. Steve Trahan, named as officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Capitol Police when Clancy was placed on leave, “will remain in his current leadership role pending next steps,” Moss said.
She said the state would have no further comment on Clancy because it was a personnel matter.
Capitol Police is the agency responsible for law enforcement at the State House and other state buildings in Augusta.
Clancy was hired as chief in 2021. Before that he was a police officer in Massachusetts for 39 years, including 20 as chief in two departments, according to the bureau’s website. A staff directory on the website is blank where the chief’s name and contact information would be, as is the site’s “The Chief’s Page.”
Clancy holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from Boston University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
He earned about $107,000 in regular wages in 2024, state payroll records show. He also earned just over $3,000 in overtime and collected about $24,000 in insurance and retirement benefits.
In addition to the Hallowell incident, Clancy had earlier interaction with police when he appeared to be intoxicated.
In 2023, police in Waterville saw Clancy get behind the wheel of his truck while he appeared to be intoxicated, according to a Waterville Police Department report released to the Morning Sentinel under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
In the July 8, 2023 report, a Waterville police officer wrote that he saw a man “unsteady on his feet” get into his parked truck around 2:30 a.m. in The Concourse parking lot. Clancy was also slurring his speech, the report states.
Clancy told the Waterville officer he worked for Capitol Police, and called his dispatch center for someone to pick him up, according to the report. A Capitol Police officer arrived about 15 minutes later to drive Clancy away.
Clancy’s next scheduled court appearance on the Hallowell charges is a Feb. 3 dispositional conference.
