Troy Jackson punched a man and pushed his partner in 1988, police report says
Sawyer Loftus
Bangor Daily News
August 12, 2026
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson’s longtime partner told an officer he “pushed her around” after Jackson broke down a door and punched a man at a Fort Kent home in 1988, according to a police report obtained exclusively by the Bangor Daily News.
Jackson, who was 19 at the time, does not dispute the assault of the man, a misdemeanor charge resolved by a fine. But Lana Pelletier, who has been in a relationship with Jackson for roughly 40 years, says she has no memory of making the statement attributed to her by police and denied he pushed her. In a statement, Jackson denied he had ever been violent with her.
“Nearly [40] years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”
The unearthing of the old case comes less than three weeks after Jackson secured the Democratic nomination in an unprecedented sprint to replace Graham Platner on the ballot in a race with five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins that is pivotal to control of the chamber. Platner’s campaign collapsed after an ex-girlfriend’s allegation that he raped her in 2021.
Jackson, a former Maine Senate president from Allagash who is now 58, does not have a criminal record, according to a background check run by the BDN. The 1988 case was the only criminal one linked to Jackson in a search of state court records. The underlying court file has been destroyed under the judicial system’s retention schedule.
But the report at the Fort Kent Police Department and a handwritten witness statement lay out an account of that night.
Just before 2 a.m. on March 12, 1988, Jackson went to a home on Market Street in Fort Kent. When he knocked on the door, one occupant told him to go away, according to the police report. Jackson refused, and that’s when he “kicked the door in,” the victim’s handwritten statement to police said.
A friend of Jackson’s who was there tried to hold him back but could not, the victim’s statement said. Jackson then went after the man, grabbed him by the throat and swung at him, hitting his glasses and cutting the man’s face, the report and victim statement said.
The victim grabbed Jackson and held him by one arm and his throat until one of Jackson’s friends got between the two men, the victim said. Jackson told the man to “stay away from Lana Pelletier or else,” the victim’s statement said.
Pelletier, who is called Jackson’s ex-girlfriend in the police report, allegedly told the responding officer that Jackson pushed her following the assault and that she planned to go to court to get “cease harassment papers” against him…
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