Duxbury man sues Edgartown

Updated Jan. 20

A longtime mooring holder in Edgartown Harbor is seeking nearly $10 million in punitive damages from the town of Edgartown, alleging in a federal lawsuit that the harbor’s only water taxi, the Oldport Launch, is retaliating against him by banning his access to the service, after he successfully prosecuted a felony assault case against one of their employees in 2022. 

Paul Mellen, 69, from Duxbury, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston in November, claiming the ban against his access to the water taxi violates his First Amendment rights as well as Massachusetts conflict-of-interest laws, and is an example of tortious interference and breach of contract. According to the civil action summons Mellen sent the town, he is requesting compensatory damages be determined at trial, including $9,999,999 in punitive damages for the alleged distress, humiliation, anxiety, and diminished use and enjoyment of his boat that the ban caused him, plus court fees. 

According to Mellen’s complaint, the town of Edgartown contracts Oldport Marine Services to provide the harbor’s only full-time commercial water taxi service, granting Oldport a monopolistic position. The lawsuit also describes Ryan Bottary’s dual employment as deputy harbormaster and Oldport’s general manager as a “severe and known conflict of interest.” 

The issue started in July 2022, when Oldport employee Kris Edwards pushed Mellen into the water off a finger pier near the Edgartown Yacht Club. Mellen took legal action. His complaint, filed against Edgartown, claimed Edwards was convicted of felony assault, and was sentenced to probation, and ordered to stay away from Mellen. 

However, Robert Moriarty, who represented Edwards in 2022 and 2023 in this case, told The Times that Edwards, who passed away in 2024, received no conviction. 

“Kris Edwards received pretrial probation. Kris did not admit to any crime with respect to what so deservedly occurred to Mr. Mellen on July 1, 2022. The reason for this is that the prosecutor, in speaking with Mr. Mellen, saw what Kris Edwards saw on July 1, 2022: ‘a difficult jerk who probably needed to cool off by taking a dip in Edgartown Harbor,’” Moriarty said in a statement. “Kris Edwards passed away before his time due to autoimmune disease on Sept. 5, 2024, so he cannot defend himself or his reputation from the spurious allegations in Mr. Mellen’s ridiculous lawsuit. Kris was a true gentleman loved by almost everyone who came into contact with him, except for people like Paul Mellen. That’s how Kris Edwards should be remembered.”

The most recent suit said Bottary rehired Edward at Oldport in July 2023, despite his alleged conviction. Mellen alleges in his lawsuit that a permanent “launch service ban” was issued against him as well as his family and associates after he objected to Edwards’ rehiring. Mellen’s seasonal launch pass was also allegedly revoked. Mellen argues this was retaliation for the successful prosecution of Edwards. 

Mellen, in a message to The Times, said he objected to Moriarty’s statement that he deserved to be pushed in the harbor, and said he never spoke with a prosecutor, only a representative from the prosecutor’s office, about the previous incident with Edwards. Mellen called Moriarty’s statement “egregiously false.”

“I did not file suit against Mr. Edwards, the commonwealth of Massachusetts did,” he said in the message. “I have no ill feelings toward Edwards. I’m sure we could have put the negative incident behind us, if not for the terrible decision made by Oldport Launch owner Mike Muessel and now Deputy Harbormaster Ryan Bottary.” 

In lawsuit documents, Mellen recalled the incident that sparked his decision to sue the town. The documents state the incident occurred in the beginning of August, while he was attempting to catch a ferry off the Island. Mellen said he hailed the Oldport launch to get back to dry land, and Bottary, acting as deputy harbormaster, allegedly responded by telephoning launch captain Michael Hathaway and instructing him to ignore Mellen’s hails and deny him service, resulting in Mellen’s almost missing his ferry, according to the lawsuit document. 

Mellen said that the town, the harbormaster, and Oldport have given him no reason for his ban. 

“This action, orchestrated by a municipal law enforcement official, was a deliberate misuse of public office to enforce a private entity’s retaliatory ban,” wrote Mellen in his civil action lawsuit submitted to Edgartown. 

Mellen, who is known in the Edgartown Harbor for his boat with a large, inflatable pink flamingo, said the process has been emotional for everybody. 

“My position in the harbor is a position of positivity, trying to spread joy and happiness through the flamingo and what I do in the form of being generous to the kids in the harbor and the boaters in the harbor,” he told The Times. “I really did not want to file a lawsuit to the town, because it creates negativity, but this case was so egregious and outrageous, and demonstrated such an extreme conflict of interest, that I felt it necessary to file the complaint in federal court. That’s the only reason I did it.” 

Edgartown Town Administrator James Hagerty said the town has until Jan. 23 to respond to Mellen’s civil action summons. 

“The town has a policy to not comment on pending litigation,” said Hagerty.

A previous version of this story stated Kris Edwards was convicted with a felony assault. The story has also been updated with a statement from Robert Moriarty and further comments from Paul Mellen.