TOPSHAM — A Waldoboro man pardoned by President Donald Trump following his conviction for assaulting police officers during the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol spoke at a Topsham church Saturday in an event organized by local Republican groups.

Matthew Brackley was sentenced in May to 15 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of assaulting, impeding or resisting police during the Jan. 6 riot against the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. He also received two years of probation and was ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and restitution.

A handful of protesters gather at the entrance of the road leading up to Topsham Baptist Church during a speaking event featuring former Maine Senate candidate Matthew Brackley on Saturday. Brackley pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding police for his role in the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Brackley was released from a Massachusetts federal prison last week shortly after Trump’s sweeping clemency action, in which the president pardoned, commuted or vowed to dismiss the cases of the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in connection with Jan. 6.

The Cumberland, York, Lincoln and Sagadahoc County Republican committees hosted Brackley at Topsham Baptist Church at an event billed as “A Maine Patriot Story.”

Organizers at the entrance of the church Saturday afternoon said journalists were not permitted to enter the event and declined to comment.

Brackley was arrested in July 2023, more than two years after the Capitol riot. He ran for a Maine Senate seat as a Republican in 2022, losing to Democrat Eloise Vitelli of Arrowsic. Brackley, who owns Brackley Electric in West Bath, is among 15 Mainers who were charged for ties to the riot — all of whom had their cases pardoned or dismissed by Trump.

According to court records, Brackley admitted that he forced his way past police and remained in the Capitol building for about 40 minutes. At one point, Brackley pushed through two Capitol police officers and asked them where then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office was.

Raphael Macias, a state representative from Topsham, far left, and his child Peyton Macias, second from left, talk to the handful of protesters gathered at the entrance of the road leading up to Topsham Baptist Church. Macias said Peyton saw a post about the event on Reddit that morning and they decided to come to protest the event. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

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About five people gathered down the hill from the Topsham church to protest Brackley’s speaking event. Some said they tried to enter the church as protesters but were asked to leave.

They were joined by state Rep. Rafael Macias, D-Topsham. Macias said he decided to attend the protest with his daughter after she saw posts about the event on Reddit.

“This (protest) is near and dear to me, because I served 22 years in the military,” Macias said. “I know what dishonor looks like … if I had done any of those things as a military member, particularly as a person of color, it would be a different verdict for me.”

Brackley told News Center Maine that he expected a pardon once Trump entered office. He said he regrets pushing past officers, but believes the 2020 election was stolen.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump’s false claims were rejected by dozens of judges, including those he appointed.

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The Maine Nordiques have enjoyed a great period of success and ahead of the game against the Philadelphia Rebels, Maine was on a run of eight straight wins.

But, Friday’s game on Jan. 23, 2025, at The Colisee finished 5-2 and the winning streak was ended.

The visiting team took the lead halfway through the first period, with a goal from

Billy Sheridan

.

Jared Coccimiglio

and

Ryan Bunting

assisted.

The Rebels made it 2-0 late in the first when Joe Stauber scored, assisted by Luke Janviriya.

The Nordiques narrowed the gap to 2-1 early in the second period when

Aiden Farro

scored, assisted by

Ethan Wongus

and

Damon Myers

.

The Nordiques made it 2-2 with a goal from

Michael Stenberg

.

Ruslan Jamaldinov

took the lead with a goal early in the third period, assisted by

Caesar Bjork

and Drew Belleson.

Brayton Frick

also increased the lead to 4-2 with a goal seven minutes later.

Ryan Bunting then made it 5-2 with a goal one minute later, assisted by Billy Sheridan and Jared Coccimiglio.

Next up:

The teams now have the chance to fine-tune their tactics, as they play each other again in the next matchup on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025 at 6 p.m. CST at The Colisee.

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Automated articles produced by United Robots on behalf of The Rink Live.

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. This week, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write a column about the wildfires in the West.

By Amy Miller

When Hurricane Sandy flooded streets in lower Manhattan in 2012, my parents on 55th Street barely felt a ripple beyond what they read in the news. The realities of how climate was affecting thousands of people was not their reality on the 21st floor of a building five miles away.

Today, from my perch in Maine, I hear about the wildfires in California and the news seems surreal. I feel like I am reading a book in that new genre called Cli-Fi. Except that I am not. Except I read that same book last year, and the year before, and it is not fiction at all.

Except I have cousins and friends in southern California who live and work in schools and offices where they are breathing the smoke and wondering if they too will have to leave their homes.

A local planner told me southern Maine is one of the places attracting climate refugees, people who want to live somewhere with less chance of a heat emergency, drought or wildfire. My corner of the world remains more protected than places like New Orleans, which sits below sea level, or Kiribati, a Pacific nation of 100,000 people and coral islands that have already begun to disappear.

But even here we have seen the writing on the wall. 

Maine’s coastal zones flooded last year, causing millions of dollars in damage and proving we are not immune. My insurance company told me I had to buy flood insurance for the first time for an inland camp on a lake near Bangor.Rotary International, a devoutly non-political organization with 1.4 million members in 200 countries, recently adopted climate change and the environment as one of its seven focus areas, along with fighting disease, maternal health and water hygiene. The organization, not prone to controversial issues, added this focus change as part of its mission in 2020.

“Rotarians understand that the whole world is their backyard,” says the organization’s website. “They can see the effects of climate change in communities they care about, and they haven’t waited to take action.”

Former International Rotary President Barry Rassin has said about 95% of the membership support the decision.

“As a humanitarian organization, we’re obligated to talk about it,” said Rassin, whose own island nation of the Bahamas is vulnerable.

“I’m not talking politics; I’m talking about our world and how to make it a better place,” Rassin has said. “We’re in a position where, with all the people Rotary has around the world, we can make a difference. If Rotary is going to be relevant, then we’ve got to be looking at the environment.”

By Guy Trammell Jr.

In 1895, fire destroyed Tuskegee Institute’s dairy barn, along with its herd of cows. After that, school architect Robert R. Taylor created fireproof buildings, using less ornamental wood and more earthen brick.

In 1917, two brick barns were constructed, each with steel windows. Another campus fire in 1918 destroyed the Slater Armstrong Boys Trades building. It was rebuilt and became Margaret Murray Washington Hall for girls’ trades. All the 1928 Wilcox Boys Trades buildings were mostly masonry.

Fire needs three things to exist: heat, oxygen and fuel. Take away one of these and the fire is gone. 

The current California wildfires have wreaked disabling devastation on an unbelievably massive scale. Neighborhoods with 50 or more years of residents’ investment – raising families and making precious memories – were horribly decimated in an instant, leaving shock, despair and debilitating sorrow.

All the neighbors and friends who normally pitch in to help each other are left powerless because they face the same losses. The magnitude of destruction is overwhelming. 

Wildfires are natural in North America, and are required for certain trees to germinate. They also are a clearing mechanism for dominant plants, allowing other species to emerge and feed specific animal life. The Mvskoki Nation deliberately used wildfires to clear underbrush for hunting. 

Discarded cigarettes, arson or downed power lines cause 25% of wildfires. However, more wildfires and more destructive wildfires are fueled by human-caused climate change that generates hotter temperatures, creates drought, and produces more dry, dead vegetation. 

In 2022 and 2023, Los Angeles had extraordinary rainfall, reaching over 52 inches downtown. 2024 had eight months of drought. 

2021 – 2,568,948 acres destroyed by wildfires

2022 – 362,455 acres destroyed by wildfires

2023 – 324,917 acres destroyed by wildfires

2024 – 1,050,012 acres destroyed by wildfires 

Los Angeles’ ferocious 80 to 100 mph Santa Ana winds send clouds of burning embers for miles, igniting more blazes. These hurricane-strength winds prevent use of water dropping helicopters to douse large areas of fire, and neither firefighters nor urban water infrastructures are adequate to attack vast acres of wildfire.

One man saved his home and others with a 2-inch hose pump, his pool, and fire retardant gel he spread over exterior walls. Others had fireproof exterior walls and vegetation-free barriers around their homes. Farmers hire out ruminant goats that make land fireproof simply by eating. 

We have created our own environmental crisis, but if we stop and think, solutions can be found.