SOUTH PORTLAND – A member of a prominent South Portland family has had perjury charges against him dismissed, while another awaits his fate on the same charge.

Following the five-month suspension on April 2 of a city license for the Maietta Towing wrecker service, brothers Vincent and Robert Maietta were indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury June 7 on charges they lied under oath during city hearings March 25 and April 1 at which their wrecker license was up for review. That review was triggered by a complaint that they had, according to City Clerk Susan Mooney, “grossly overcharged” for service.

According to South Portland Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Steve Webster, some statements made by the Maiettas under oath did not jibe with comments documented during other contacts with the police department.

“The reason this happened is, following the second hearing on April 1, both of the Maiettas came into the police department and filed a complaint against an officer,” said Webster in June. “That necessitated an internal investigation, which we are obligated to do. As a result, the video of the hearing was watched and watched and it appears some of the things the Maiettas said may not have been exactly accurate.”

Tamara Getchell, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, said Monday that because grand jury proceedings are confidential, she could not say what, precisely, the Maiettas were accused of lying about. Records in the case are similarly bereft of detail. However, Webster has said the Maiettas’ allegedly false statements were “not in relation to operation of the wrecker service.”

On Oct. 10, the District Attorney’s office dropped charges against Vincent Maietta due to “insufficient evidence.” On Tuesday, Getchell said she could offer no further information, having been unable to talk to the lead attorney on the case, Hannah May.

The case against Robert Maietta remains pending and is scheduled for an Oct. 31 hearing. His attorney, Daniel Lilley, had moved to have that case dismissed, as he did with Vincent Maietta, although court records show the D.A.’s office beat Lilley to the count on that motion.

Perjury is a class C felony in Maine, punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.

On Oct. 1, Police Chief Ed Googins said the investigation into the complaints against Sgt. Todd Barlow, who conducted the police investigation into their billing practices, had cleared Barlow of wrongdoing.

“The only thing that would be public would be if there was any disciplinary action, which there was not in this case,” said Googins, who has otherwise declined to comment on the investigation of the Maiettas.

In an April 22 interview, Vincent Maietta claimed he and his brother were verbally accosted by Barlow in a profanity-laced tirade during a recess in the April 1 proceeding, and again immediately afterward. Maietta subsequently filed a protection from harassment order against Barlow in Cumberland County Unified Court. District Court Judge Jeffrey Moskowitz dismissed Maietta’s request on April 22. Maietta filed a separate complaint against Barlow with his department on June 3.

“What I can say is that this perjury charge wasn’t done out of retribution, or hard feelings, or because they filed a complaint,” said Webster, at the time of the grand jury indictment. “It was because there was a process at a hearing at which everyone was sworn to tell the truth, and it doesn’t appear that happened.”

The road to the perjury charge began with a two-vehicle accident on Broadway on March 1. According to Mooney’s April 2 notice of decision that pulled Maietta’s license, the bill given to one of the drivers involved in that incident, Alex Anastasoff, was “intentionally padded” by a Maietta employee.

That was done, Mooney wrote, “in response to a claim by Mr. Anastasoff that the employee had stolen a radio out of his truck while it was in the impound yard,” maintained by Maietta on Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough. To compound matters, wrote Mooney, “another Maietta employee who runs the business office approved the overcharge despite Mr. Anastasoff’s vigorous objection.”

Anastasoff subsequently complained to the city about his $1,425 bill. South Portland licenses a dozen wrecker services to respond to calls from the city or the police department. In cases where a motorist is unable to place his or her own call for service, for reasons including arrest or incapacity due to an accident, a city ordinance controls the maximum tow rate companies can charge.

City rates allow tow companies to charge $65 for daytime calls, $75 at night, and $25 per day for storage. There also is a $70-per-hour add-on if a vehicle is off-road, submerged, or requires other “special handling.” Following a March 25 hearing called to consider Anastasoff’s complaint, Mooney determined he should have been charged no more than $190.

Barlow’s investigation found that Maietta Towing also overcharged four other customers during a 45-day period ending April 1, billing a total of $1,060 in towing and impound fees that should have cost between $75 and $195 each, based on city rates.

The result was a suspension of Maietta’s license until Aug. 31, a $100 fine, and an order by Mooney to refund Anastasoff his $1,425.

Following the April 1 hearing, Googins ordered a review of all 12 wrecker services licensed by the city. While almost all were found to have overcharged by small amounts on their city-initiated tows, only one other, Arcee LLC, was “significantly out of line” with ordinance limits, said Googins.

The two wrecker services run by Arcee, InTown Towing and S&R Towing, were found to have charged $2,740 on seven calls for service between Jan. 1 and April 11 that should have netted billing of just $890. Following a May 30 hearing, both companies were assessed a $100 find and their city licenses were pulled until July 31.

In an Oct. 3 email, Acree owner Curtis Gleason complained that he did not get a call for service from the city for two months after his license was reinstated.

The resulting financial turmoil, which included the loss of auction company tows following publicity of the license suspension, has left Curtis trying to go it alone after his business partner signed away his half of the company.

Gleason has claimed that he was unaware of the city’s maximum tow fees, and had only charged what his boss had charged before he bought the company in 2011. The city’s fees, even when he does get a call for service, were last updated a decade ago and do not really cover costs, he said.

“I don’t know about the other guys who were investigated, but I’m just a regular guy trying to make a living,” he said, in April.