WINSLOW — After a town councilor claimed he feared for his safety during a tense interaction with the town manager, a judge has denied his request for a protection from abuse order.

Mike Joseph Courtesy photo

Councilor Mike Joseph claimed that Town Manager Ella Bowman “started to yell at me and putting her finger in my face” after a July 8 Town Council meeting, according to a complaint seeking a protection from abuse order filed last month.

Joseph went into detail about the alleged incident, though he never described what incited the tense conversation.

“I tried to move away (from) Ella, but she continued to yell and put her finger in my face,” Joseph wrote in the filing. “I felt harassed and threaten(ed) of bodily harm or injury that Ella could be capable of doing to me, knowing she was a police officer for about 15 years.”

The filing alleges that Bowman followed Joseph into a hallway and continued to raise her voice.

Joseph went on to allege that Councilor Adam Lint tried intervening by stepping between the two, writing that Bowman responded by asking Lint, “You want some too?”

Though Bowman acknowledged her anger over comments Joseph made about her at the meeting, she denied claims of harassment or abuse.

“I didn’t harass him, I didn’t threaten him, or touch him,” Bowman wrote via text on Monday. “I was mad and I told him how I felt about what he said to me in a public meeting and in front of a camera.”

The tension between Joseph and Bowman comes following earlier instances of unrest among Winslow’s municipal officials.

Recently, Joseph and Councilor Fran Hudson stoked controversy after sending emails questioning fellow Councilor Lee Trahan’s cognitive function and ability to govern following a coma he suffered this year. That incident also raised concerns among some residents about municipal officials legislating in private, a topic that had already made headlines when the town attorney chided councilors for risking a “fine line” last year by discussing town matters in private.

Winslow Town Manager Ella Bowman in April 2023. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Bowman said Monday that the latest incident was sparked by Joseph’s statements during the public comment period of the July 8 meeting, in which he claimed Bowman was conspiring with others to “embarrass” and “undermine” him.

“I don’t have any problems if somebody is against what I bring up for the public, but when you start taking and start attacking my character just because somebody is ticked off because I won election, it really bugs me,” Joseph said at the July 8 meeting. “There’s going to be serious repercussions if this continues.”

Joseph ticked a box in court paperwork indicating he believed he was in immediate danger of physical abuse because Bowman, a former police officer of 15 years, “may have firearms.”

Joseph did not respond Monday to multiple requests for comment. A family member said he was out of town.

Joseph’s request for a protection from abuse order was denied by District Court Judge Charles Dow on July 10, who wrote in a court filing that the one-time incident did not meet the legal requirements of harassment.

“There is an allegation of a single act of the kind of conduct that requires three or more acts in order to be considered harassment,” Dow wrote.

Bowman was hired as Winslow’s town manager last October after nine years of serving as nearby Oakland’s head administrator. Oakland put her on administrative leave last year after six town employees lodged complaints against her, although officials never made public what those complaints entailed.

Bowman, who is one of the only openly transgender town managers in the country, began her gender transition three years ago.

In her resignation letter to Oakland, Bowman wrote that she left due to an uncomfortable environment in the town office that only began after her gender transition. She wrote that the six employees in question “struggled with my transition the most.”

Joseph is a first-term councilor elected in November last year who has described himself as a conservative Christian businessman.

Winslow Council Chairman Jeff West said Monday he had no comment on the incident.

The Town Council is holding a special meeting on Tuesday, where the only item on the agenda is consultation with legal counsel. The meeting will not be open to the public.