An Augusta activist is suing Augusta Police Department claiming he was not able to speak out against the October No Kings rally in Augusta because he was detained by police after other attendees inaccurately reported he had a gun.

Nicholas Blanchard, known as “Corn Pop,” filed the lawsuit in federal court claiming the police department and Sgt. Desmond Nutter violated his First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights when he was detained Oct. 18. He said police “deprived (him) of the ability to engage in speech at the No Kings protest, and he suffered emotional distress and embarrassment from the arrest.”

Blanchard said in an online statement he had a Byrna gun, a nonlethal self-defense weapon, on him at the time. The lawsuit states he had the device, which looks like a pistol but is not a firearm and uses carbon dioxide to release a nonlethal projectile, for his own protection.

Blanchard, clad in what his lawsuit describes as “a stylized American Flag outfit,” said he’s a supporter of President Donald Trump and went to the No Kings rally to oppose the protest.

Blanchard said in social media posts he arrived at the protest on Memorial Bridge and someone there noticed the device he was carrying and called police. He said while the individuals who made the call were being interviewed by police, his Byrna gun slipped off his hip, prompting officers to detain him.

Police seized the device. Blanchard said Nutter approached and instructed an officer to remove him from the bridge. Blanchard said he told the sergeant he’d done nothing wrong and refused to leave and asserted his right to protest. He said Nutter then told him he was under arrest.

Blanchard was taken to the police station, where he waited in a cruiser until Nutter arrived, and Nutter told him he wasn’t being charged, and released him.

The lawsuit alleges Nutter told Blanchard he had been arrested because “Nutter wanted to get him off the bridge before the crowd turns on him.”

The lawsuit says Blanchard was arrested because his viewpoint was not that of the No Kings protestors, that he was detained without a warrant longer than necessary, and at no time was charged with a crime.

The crowd at the rally, lining both sides of the bridge, cheered as Blanchard was led to a police vehicle, witnesses said. Police also closed the bridge to traffic during the incident.

Cameron Ferrante, the city of Augusta’s attorney, said the city does not comment on pending litigation. He said the city had also not yet been served with Blanchard’s complaint, which was filed Jan. 8.

Blanchard’s lawsuit seeks a jury trial, to have it declared Augusta Police Department and Nutter’s actions constituted an unlawful seizure and arrest, and to be awarded damages in an amount to be determined at trial, as well as attorney fees and expenses.

Blanchard is being represented by Augusta attorney Stephen Smith, as well as Massachusetts attorney Marc Randazza, a First Amendment advocate who previously represented the late Shawn McBreairty in legal battles against multiple Maine school districts.

Blanchard, too, has had multiple conflicts with school boards in Maine. They include an October 2025 Augusta Board of Education meeting at which three people partially undressed, while Blanchard spoke out against transgender students being allowed to use locker rooms of their choosing.

Blanchard, who has said he plans to run for the Augusta Board of Education, was also involved in a Jan. 8 incident after Blanchard and others, at a meeting in North Berwick, disrupted a School Administrative District 60 board meeting. Outside the meeting, a North Berwick lawyer, Trevor Savage, was charged with assault for allegedly bumping Blanchard, while Blanchard recorded the interaction, according to the Maine Monitor. Blanchard, in an interview, said Savage had body checked him. Savage can be seen on the video saying the bump was not intentional, a claim Blanchard disputes.

 Blanchard said he is considering suing MSAD 60 after the board kicked him out of the meeting.