Third person arrested in connection to 2023 assault outside Portsmouth diner
Mar. 3—A third person has been arrested in connection to what has been called a racially-motivated attack against a Black man last year outside a Portsmouth diner in Nov. 2023, State Police said Monday.
On Saturday, Shannon Goodwin, 39, of Dundalk, Maryland, turned herself in on a warrant issued by State Police for three misdemeanor charges of simple assault and a disorderly conduct violation.
Goodwin was arrested and processed after surrendering at the Newington Police Department. She is scheduled to be arraigned March 24 in Portsmouth District Court.
In May 2024, Shannon Goodwin's husband, Kevin Goodwin, also of Dundalk, Maryland, turned himself in to police on charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the same incident.
In March 2024, Aaron Goodwin, 45, of Eliot, Maine, Kevin Goodwin's brother and a former Portsmouth Police sergeant, turned himself in to State Police on the same charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the alleged assault, which occurred the night before Thanksgiving 2023.
Aaron Goodwin pleaded guilty last year to assaulting Mamadou Dembele, a Black man who is a vice president at a local bank. Aaron Goodwin received a suspended 30-day jail sentence for his role in the confrontation, which Dembele claims was racially motivated. A disorderly conduct charge was dropped.
Aaron Goodwin was also ordered to take part in anger-management classes and to perform community service.
He was fired from the Portsmouth Police Department in 2015 after he was accused of influencing an elderly woman to leave roughly $2 million of her estate to him. A probate court blocked Goodwin's inheritance.
Dembele has filed a federal lawsuit against the three Goodwins for the assault, citing negligence, battery, assault, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.
"(The) defendants' conduct is the actual and proximate cause of physical, mental, psychological and other harms and injuries Mr. Dembele suffered," the lawsuit states. "As a proximate result, Mr. Dembele incurred pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment, past and future medical and mental health treatment expenses, temporary and possible permanent disability, past and future lost time from work and lost earnings, and has incurred other expenses."
The Goodwins have filed motions to have the lawsuit dismissed.
According to the lawsuit, Dembele went to Gilley's Diner the night of Nov. 22, 2023, where he encountered Aaron Goodwin and two others — identified by law enforcement as Kevin and Shannon Goodwin — while waiting for his food order.
The complaint says Dembele spoke with Aaron Goodwin shortly after 10:30 p.m. and offered him a cigar "as a sign of friendship and goodwill on this Thanksgiving eve."
"Defendant Kevin Goodwin reacted angrily to this," the AG's complaint reads. "He asked Defendant Aaron Goodwin why he was talking to 'this f---ing moron,' and stated that M.D. was too poor to afford a good cigar. Defendant Kevin Goodwin further stated that the cigar was a 'blunt,' which he explained was when Black people mix tobacco with marijuana and smoke it."
Kevin and Shannon Goodwin became hostile and began insulting Dembele, the complaint alleges.
After Dembele left Gilley's with his order, the confrontation continued outside, the complaint says.
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