Opinion ID: 201039
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Swearing Out the Criminal Complaint

Text: 16 In accordance with Maine law, a Maine district court clerk may, in the absence or unavailability of a justice of the peace or a prosecuting attorney or any of his assistants, prepare and draft a misdemeanor criminal complaint upon the request of any law enforcement officer. 15 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 708. While the statute does not define the phrase law enforcement officer, the district court interpreted it to include postal inspectors. We agree. 17 When interpreting a statute under Maine law, words and phrases are to be construed in accordance with the plain meaning of the enactment. 1 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 72. Applying this rule of statutory construction to 15 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 708, we find that any law enforcement officer includes every kind of law enforcement officer, regardless of whether or not the officer is statutorily authorized to enforce state law. Moreover, we have regularly recognized postal inspectors as law enforcement officers. See, e.g., United States v. Carrillo-Figueroa, 34 F.3d 33, 43 (1st Cir.1994) (for sentence enhancement purposes, defendant should have known that postal inspector was a law enforcement officer); see also Cosme v. Henderson, 287 F.3d 152, 156 (2d Cir.2002) (Plaintiff applied for a position as a postal inspector, a highly competitive law enforcement position.); Stout v. Potter, 276 F.3d 1118, 1121 (9th Cir.2002) (The Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement branch of the United States Postal Service.). 18 Santoni argues that the phrase law enforcement officers as used in 15 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 708 does not include postal inspectors because postal inspectors are not among those federal law enforcement officials vested with the power to enforce state law under 25 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 1502-A. However, 15 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 708 does not limit authority to swear out a criminal complaint to state law enforcement officers and federal officers who are specifically empowered to enforce state law. Nor does 25 Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 1502-A place any limitations on the kinds of officers who may swear out complaints. Therefore, we agree with the district court that the phrase any law enforcement officer does not preclude postal officials from swearing out criminal complaints. 6 19