City of Portland to OccupyMaine: File a lawsuit or get out of Lincoln Park

Yesterday, I posted in this space that OccupyMaine attorney John Branson had said the group plans to file a lawsuit against the city of Portland by Friday. Today at 12:30 p.m. was the deadline set in a letter by City Manager Mark Rees for OccupyMaine to inform the city of its next step after the City Council last week denied the group’s request to stay in Lincoln Park.

This afternoon, the city announced that OccupyMaine has informed the municipality that the demonstrators will file a lawsuit by midday Monday.

To make sure Branson doesn’t wait any longer than that, the city went on to order the protesters to move out of Lincoln Park if the lawsuit hasn’t been filed by noon on Monday.

This is the latest development in the city’s words:

In the interest of helping facilitate a judicial decision and upon the request of OccupyMaine’s attorney, the city has issued a Notice to Vacate to members of OccupyMaine and their attorney, which states all structures and belongings must be removed from Lincoln Park by noon Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 unless a lawsuit has been filed.

Copies of the most recent documents sent to Branson and OccupyMaine are attached here:

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.