AUGUSTA — For flipping the bird with both hands in court to a woman he had assaulted, Terrence N. Townes will spend a year behind bars.

Townes, now 40, and formerly of Bangor, was subject to bail conditions prohibiting him from contact with the woman when he made that gesture April 11, 2017, in a courtroom at the Capital Judicial Center. Townes had pleaded not guilty that day to assault charges and as he left the courtroom, looked at the woman and raised both middle fingers at her.

A jury in December 2017 convicted Townes of aggravated assault for the October 2016 attack at 53 Water St., Augusta, which left the woman blind in one eye.

The attack occurred as the woman, a property manager, was attempting to get him to leave the building.

Townes was sentenced later to an initial 12 years in prison, with the rest of the 25-year sentence suspended while he spends four years on probation. He is serving that sentence at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the charge of violating condition of release and was sentenced to a year in prison, concurrent to the sentence for aggravated assault.

In an affidavit filed at court, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Charles Clapperton recounted the incident on April 11, 2017, saying that “when Mr. Townes was exiting the courtroom, he used both hands and raised both middle fingers to individuals in the main court gallery.”

The assault victim told an investigator that “he was looking right at me” and both hands went high in the air and he stuck out his middle fingers. She also said that Townes “kept making faces at her.”

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

IN AUGUSTA, Monday at 7:59 a.m., a mental health and well-being check was performed on Washington Street.

9:03 a.m., disorderly conduct was reported on Eastern Avenue.

10:31 a.m., gross sexual assault was reported by a caller on Capitol Street.

10:50 a.m., criminal trespassing was reported on Western Avenue.

11:16 a.m., disorderly conduct was reported on Child Street.

1:20 p.m., a city ordinance violation was reported on Front Street.

1:22 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Malta Street.

2:38 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Kayla Lane.

3:23 p.m., a disturbance was reported on Water Street.

3:48 p.m., harassment was reported on Northern Avenue.

3:50 p.m., fraud was reported on Crosby Street.

4:11 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Franklin and Oxford streets.

4:44 p.m., theft was reported on Washington Street.

5:26 p.m., firefighters responded to a report of a brush fire on Bond Brook Road.

5:54 p.m., a drug offense was reported on Bangor Street.

9:30 p.m., a disturbance was reported on Caswell Street.

11:11 p.m., a mental health and well-being check was done on Winthrop Street.

Tuesday at 12:30 a.m., criminal trespassing was reported on Hospital Street.

2:58 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on Summer Street.

3:16 a.m., a mental health and well-being check was done on Winthrop Street.

IN FARMINGDALE, Monday at 10:16 a.m., a hit-and-run traffic accident was reported on Maine Avenue.

IN HALLOWELL, Monday at 11:11 a.m., a city ordinance violation was reported on Middle Street.

Tuesday at 3:01 a.m., a disturbance was reported on Water Street.

IN MONMOUTH, Monday at 5:58 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on U.S. Route 202.

Tuesday at 3:37 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on U.S. Route 202.

IN WHITEFIELD, Monday at 9:20 a.m., the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office rescude a 26-year-old man from an overdose.

ARRESTS

IN AUGUSTA, Monday at 3:20 p.m., Courtney Elaine Peaslee, 26, of Whitefield, was arrested on a warrant and a charge of theft by deception, after shoplifting was reported on Civic Center Drive.

9:57 p.m., Sonya Marie Engelhardt, 41, of Waterville, was arrested on charges of violating conditions of release, unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, and trafficking in prison contraband, on State Street.

IN DRESDEN, Saturday, Jeffrey E. Bodge, 40, of Dresden, was arrested on a charge of operating under the influence, on River Road.

SUMMONSES

IN AUGUSTA, Monday at 9:43 a.m., a 46-year-old Bowdoinham man was summoned on a charge of operating while license was suspended or revoked, during a traffic stop on Route 3.

IN JEFFERSON, Thursday, March 29 at an unidentified time, a 42-year-old Jefferson woman was summoned on a charge of failing to make an oral or written accident report, on Waldoboro Road.

A convicted felon from Brunswick was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Tuesday for providing false information during an attempt to purchase a firearm nearly three years ago.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal imposed the sentence on Evan Lewis, 28, in federal court in Portland, according to U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank. The judge also ordered that Lewis be placed on three years of supervised release.

According to court records, Lewis tried to purchase a semi-automatic, 9 mm pistol from a Lewiston pawnshop on July 22, 2015.

In the process of purchasing the weapon, Lewis completed a firearms transaction record in which he falsely claimed that his name was David Frank Lewis. He also denied having been convicted of a felony or being an unlawful drug user.

Frank said that Lewis was a convicted felon and that he illegally used methamphetamine. The pawnshop ultimately refused to sell Lewis the pistol because the name he gave did not match the name on his driver’s license.

The case was investigated by Lisbon and Auburn police in cooperation with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

AUGUSTA — Four people have been arrested on aggravated drug trafficking charges after police reported finding a large cache of heroin in a hotel room.

Those charged are Alex Kanaris and Krystle Clark, both 27, of Sidney, and Andrew Redmond, 29, and Danielle Violette, 27, both of Augusta.

The arrests took place after Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Augusta Police officers raided a room at the Augusta Inn room late Monday evening and seized more than 350 grams of heroin, according to a news release Wednesday from the drug enforcement agency. The street value of the heroin was estimated at $70,000, according to the release.

Authorities said the agency received reports of drug trafficking from a hotel room on Edison Drive.

Agents also reported finding a small amount of crack cocaine, and $3,852 in cash that authorities believe to be proceeds from drug sales.

The four arrested were found in the hotel room and are being held at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta. They were scheduled to be seen by a judge later Wednesday.

This story will be updated.

SKOWHEGAN — Members of the state police evidence response team testified Wednesday morning that stains were tested inside the home of Luc Tieman came back with a variety of results for the presence of blood.

Tieman, 34, who served in Iraq and reportedly suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, is charged with intentional or knowing murder in the death of his wife, Valerie Tieman, in August 2016 and faces 25 years to life in prison if he is found guilty of murder.

Defense attorney Stephen Smith, who has been largely quiet in his cross examination of state witnesses in the murder trial, pressed detectives over “competing results” from the tests on stains. Some were positive, some were negative for the presence of blood.

Detectives also testified they found a .45-caliber handgun and ammunition on Sept. 20, 2016, inside the Tieman home that Luc Tieman had shared with his wife Valerie, whose body was found buried behind the house on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield

State police on Tuesday, under direct examination from Assistant Attorneys General Leanne Zainea and Leanne Robbin, identified the gun used to shoot Valerie twice in the head and neck as having been a .45-caliber Citadel handgun.

The killing is alleged to have taken place Aug. 25 — 15 days before Valerie’s parents reported her missing and five days before Tieman claimed his wife disappeared Aug. 30 from the Walmart parking lot in Skowhegan, but he did not report her missing.

An autopsy report from the state medical examiner’s office says opiates were found in Valerie’s blood, but that she died of two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the neck.

Tieman has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to the murder charge in November 2016 and agreeing to go on trial before a judge and jury.

Tuesday Police described interviews with Luc Tieman that started Sept. 13, 2016, and culminated in an extended exchange with State Police Detective Chris Crawford on Sept. 20, the day Valerie’s body was found and a day before Luc Tieman was arrested and charged with her murder.

A 90-minute audio recording of the Sept. 20 conversation between the two men was played for the jury Tuesday afternoon. Tieman stuck to his story of Valerie having left his truck at the Skowhegan Walmart store on Aug. 30, 2016. Police and prosecutors allege that Tieman had killed her five days earlier and buried her body behind his parents’ house.

Halfway through the recording Crawford tells Tieman that investigators have found a woman’s body behind his parents’ house. At that point it had not been identified, but Crawford tells him of a note investigators had uncovered and the name “Luc-e.”

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Tieman says. “I didn’t do it.”

Tieman then changes his story in the recording, saying he went to Winslow to buy heroin for Valerie.

“I watched her put the needle in her arm,” Tieman is heard saying, sounding like he is crying.

“She had a smile on her face,” he says, now clearly crying.

He said he got some tools and dug a trench and buried her. He said he never called an ambulance for his wife.

State police Sgt. Scott Bryant told the jury of eight men and six women before Justice Robert Mullen on Tuesday morning that investigators slowly unearthed the body once it was located, saving the soil for further evidence collection.

Investigators found blood evidence on Walmart receipts inside Luc Tieman’s red Chevrolet pickup truck and on the fender and bumper of the truck, as well as in the back seat and on the truck’s glove box handle and door handle, Bryant said.

This story will be updated.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

Robert Joyal Family photo via Portland Police Department

Portland police are asking for the public’s help in solving a 20-year-old homicide.

Robert Joyal was an 18 year-old Gorham High School student when he was stabbed to death during a fight involving dozens of young people in the parking lot of a Denny’s restaurant on Congress Street in Portland.

Despite the presence of dozens of witnesses, no one was ever convicted for the killing.

Seiha Srey was indicted for murder based on interviews with witnesses. But, the charges against Srey were dismissed for lack of evidence. Srey later died in a 2007 shooting.

The case is now a cold case in Portland and the department is using the 20th anniversary of the crime to ask the public for new information. A news release from police asks witnesses who were reluctant to talk with police at the time to come forward now and help resolve the case and provide answer to the Joyal family.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jeff Tully at (207) 874 – 8550 or go to https://www.portlandmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2246.

To provide information anonymously, community members may contact police by text, internet, or phone.

• Mobile phone users can text the keyword “GOTCHA” plus their message to 274637 (CRIMES).

• Submit tips by going to the Portland Police Department website: www.portland-police.com and clicking “Submit an Anonymous Crime Tip.”

• Anonymous phone tips can be left on the Department’s Crime Tip line: 207-874-8584.

AUGUSTA — A Skowhegan woman is charged with unlawful drug possession after she allegedly overdosed in jail and was taken to the hospital, where nurses reported finding crack and a crack pipe in her prosthetic leg.

Sonya Marie Engelhardt, 41, who also has an address in Athens, was scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday afternoon on that misdemeanor charge as well as a charge of violating condition of release, both of which occurred April 2, 2018, according to a complaint filed at the Capital Judicial Center.

Engelhardt had been taken to the Kennebec County jail after being arrested by Waterville Police.

“Once inside the jail, Engelhardt, overdosed and was transported to MaineGeneral (Medical Center),” wrote Kennebec Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jeffrey Boudreau in an affidavit filed at the court. “According to Deputy Savage, once at the hospital, the nursing staff took a crack pipe out of Engelhardt’s prosthetic leg that has a little Baggie in it with a usable amount of crack cocaine.”

Engelhardt was on bail at the time, according to the complaint.

She was among those scheduled to be in court Wednesday afternoon via video link with the jail.

A federal judge has dismissed a bankruptcy filing by three Maine housing companies linked to former Portland developer Michael Liberty.

Pine State Housing, Montfort Housing and Birch Ridge Limited Partnership filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 30, seeking protection from creditors while they reorganized debts. But Stanford Management, which oversaw operations of the hundreds of apartments owned by the three companies, challenged the filing, saying it was an attempt to gain leverage over the management company in contract disputes.

“These chapter 11 cases are bad faith filings that serve no reorganizational purpose,” Sanford said in a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy action filed on March 20.

The filing said that the ownership had been unable to cancel contracts with Stanford Management for cause, so the bankruptcy filing was a way to try to accomplish that as part of a court-overseen reorganization.

The three companies own hundreds of apartment units across the state and have continued to operate while in bankruptcy court. The complexes provide housing for the elderly, disabled and low-income residents and include the Munjoy South complex in Portland and a development called the Birches in Old Orchard Beach.

Stanford Management said that on the date the companies filed for bankruptcy, the companies also sought to install a new management firm that is owned or controlled by people associated with Liberty, who is listed as a general partner of the housing firms.

Bankruptcy Judge Peter Cary apparently agreed with Stanford Management’s arguments, dismissing the case on March 27.

It’s a significant new legal setback for Liberty, who grew up in Gray and was a major developer in Portland in the late 1980s. Last year, he was sentenced by a federal judge in Maine to four months in prison and fined $100,000 for using relatives and employees to avoid campaign finance limits. In Philadelphia, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been seeking to force Liberty to pay his full fine for defrauding investors and now he faces new charges from the SEC alleging that he and associates defrauded hundreds of investors of millions of dollars related to Mozido, a technology firm he formed in Texas.

ROCKLAND — A Knox County grand jury indicted 10 people Tuesday including a Camden man accused of torturing his family over the past five years. Among the charges against him is that he refused to allow his 2-year-old daughter to be taken to the hospital for an illness which later claimed her life.

Senad Brkic, 42, was indicted April 3 for three counts of felony aggravated assault, domestic violence assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Brkic was arrested in December on two counts of felony aggravated assault and one misdemeanor domestic violence assault charge.

He is free after posting bail of $2,500 cash.

The charge of endangering the welfare of a child stems from a March 2016 incident in which Brkic is alleged to have refused to let his daughter go to the hospital when her health deteriorated from a bout of influenza. The girl’s mother “disobeyed” her husband and eventually took the child to the hospital but she died from sepsis that was a complication from the flu, according to a police report filed in court in December by Knox County Sheriff’s Office Detective Dwight Burtis.

The aggravated assault charges involved two of his daughters and his wife, according to the indictments. The assaults were perpetrated with “extreme indifference to the value of human life,” according to the indictments.

In the December police affidavit, the wife told the detective that her husband suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He lost his left arm while fighting in the Bosnian Civil War, according to the affidavit. That civil war occurred from 1991 until the end of 1995.

The woman said the family has lived in the United States for 16 years, but her husband would not let her make friends or get a job and isolated her. When she complained to him about his abuse, Brkic told her that he would win in court and that she did not understand the legal system.

Brkic is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on April 12.

A federal lawsuit over a strain of mice developed by The Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor has been dismissed after the parties agreed to arbitration in the dispute.

Jackson Lab filed the suit in September, alleging that Nanjing University was breeding and reselling a strain of mice that Jackson Lab had developed.

The Bar Harbor company is a leading breeder of mice used in medical research. Starting in 2002, Jackson Lab sold to the university mice that had been bred to have an extremely deficient immune system.

The deficient immune system allowed researchers to introduce human cells or tissues into the mice without triggering an immune system response, making the strain of mice important in research into how the human immune system works, along with stem cell biology and treating diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

When Jackson Lab sells strains of mice it develops, it allows buyers to breed the mice only for research into how diseases and treatments affect subsequent generations of mice.

The suit alleged that Nanjing University, which is about 100 miles northwest of Shanghai, bred the mice from Jackson Lab and then offered them for sale, including via an ad on a university web site.

The Maine company sent cease-and-desist letters to the university and tried to trigger an arbitration clause in the sales contract, but were put off by Nanjing University officials.

Jackson Lab filed a motion Monday to dismiss the suit after Nanjing University agreed to take the issue before an arbitrator and a judge agreed Tuesday to dismiss the suit.

IN BINGHAM, Tuesday at 9:05 p.m., a structure fire was reported on High Street.

IN CANAAN, Tuesday at 4:48 p.m., a harassment complaint was taken on Hill Road.

IN CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Tuesday at 2:55 p.m., vandalism was reported on Moose Alley.

3:49 p.m., theft was reported on Main Street.

IN CLINTON, Tuesday at 9:30 p.m., a disturbance was reported on Morrison Avenue.

10:27 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Railroad Street.

IN EUSTIS, Tuesday at 10:01 a.m., harassment was reported on Main Street.

IN FAIRFIELD, Tuesday at 1:52 p.m., a domestic disturbance was reported on Skowhegan Road.

3:17 p.m., threatening was reported on Ridge Road.

4:24 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Skowhegan Road.

5:15 p.m., a past burglary was reported on Valley Farms Road.

9:28 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Summit Street.

9:33 p.m., a domestic disturbance was reported on Williams Street.

Wednesday at 11 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on Mountain Avenue.

IN FARMINGTON, Tuesday at 2:37 p.m., theft was reported on Farmer Lane.

IN JACKMAN, Tuesday at 3:25 p.m., trespassing was reported on Main Street.

IN JAY, Tuesday at 11:35 a.m., trespassing was reported on Bridge Street.

6:33 p.m., a domestic disturbance was reported on Juniper Road.

IN MADISON, Tuesday at 3:57 p.m., an assault was reported on Weston Street.

IN NORRIDGEWOCK, Tuesday at 1:39 p.m., a past burglary was reported on Waterville Road.

IN PALMYRA, Tuesday at 8:15 p.m., a domestic disturbance was reported on Main Street.

IN PHILLIPS, Tuesday at 9:07 p.m., threatening was reported on Sawyer Street.

IN PITTSFIELD, Tuesday at 3:28 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Central Street.

IN SKOWHEGAN, Tuesday at 2:59 p.m., a harassment complaint was taken on Cote Street.

3:57 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Leavitt Street.

4:16 p.m., a harassment complaint was taken on Beauford Street.

5:08 p.m., a disturbance was reported on West Front Street.

9:33 p.m., breaking and entering was reported on West Front Street.

Wednesday at 9:13 a.m., a past burglary was reported on Madison Avenue.

IN WATERVILLE, Tuesday at 7:57 a.m., an intoxicated person was reported on College Avenue.

10:16 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on College Avenue.

10:19 a.m., suspicious activity was reported on Carver Street.

12:55 p.m., theft was reported on Kennedy Memorial Drive.

1:23 p.m., theft was reported on College Avenue.

2:28 p.m., criminal trespass was reported on College Avenue.

3:13 p.m., a disturbance was reported on Water Street.

3:17 p.m., juvenile offenses were reported on Mystic Street.

3:55 p.m., theft was reported on Silver Street.

4:58 p.m., juvenile offenses were reported on Elm Street.

5:55 p.m., harassment was reported on College Avenue.

6:42 p.m., a missing person was reported on Elm Street.

Wednesday at 2:58 a.m., theft was reported on The Concourse.

IN WILTON, Tuesday at 9:51 a.m., theft was reported on North Pond Road.

5:57 p.m., a missing person was reported on Weld Road.

7:36 p.m., a domestic disturbance was reported on Main Street.

IN WINSLOW, Tuesday at 2:48 p.m., a noise complaint was reported on Monument Street.

4:21 p.m., suspicious activity was reported on Monument Street.

6:03 p.m., theft was reported on Ginger Avenue.

ARRESTS

IN FRANKLIN COUNTY, Tuesday at 8:58 a.m., Timothy David Witham Sr., 32, of Farmington, was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault.

2:17 p.m., Craig Michael Cowper, 39, of Wilton, was arrested on a warrant.

2:35 p.m., Monica Rollins, 36, of Wilton, was arrested on a warrant.

11:07 p.m., Tyler Michael Thorndike, 25, of Phillips, was arrested on charges of terrorizing and a probation hold.

IN SOMERSET COUNTY, Tuesday at 12:26 p.m., Mariah Crawford, 22, of Norridgewock, was arrested on a warrant.

1:26 p.m., Crystal Nayda Jolicquer, 30, of Winthrop, was arrested on a writ.

4:07 p.m., Joanna Ann Brown, 33, of Skowhegan, was arrested on a warrant.

4:34 p.m., Nicole Lyn Morse, 32, of Skowhegan, was arrested on charges of aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs, unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs.

Wednesday at 10:26 a.m., Bruce William Tillson, 41, of Skowhegan, was arrested on a charge of burglary.

IN WATERVILLE, Tuesday at 1:41 p.m., a 16-year-old was arrested on a juvenile community corrections hold.

6:51 p.m., Adam Bajpai, 26, of Waterville, was arrested on a warrant.

11:32 p.m., Brian Gleason, 32, of Winslow, was arrested on charges of operating under the influence and operating a vehicle without a license.

SUMMONSES

IN FAIRFIELD, Tuesday at 9:03 p.m., Gertrude Lawrence, 35, of Skowhegan, was summonsed on charges of speeding 30 miles per hour or more over the limit and displaying fictitious vehicle certificate.

IN WATERVILLE, Tuesday at 9:35 p.m., Alexis Casey, 27, of Waterville, was summonsed on a charge of operating with a suspended or revoked license.

IN AUGUSTA, Tuesday at 11:18 a.m., Matthew Lyon, 35, of Benton, injured in a single-vehicle accident on West River Road after police say he fell asleep at the wheel and his vehicle went off the road and struck a utility pole.

12:09 p.m., one person was taken to the hospital by Augusta Rescue after a Civic Center Drive caller requested a welfare check on a person.

IN GARDINER, Tuesday at 6:58 p.m., one person was reportedly arrested after a caller from Pleasant Street reported a problem.

ARRESTS

IN AUGUSTA, Tuesday at 4:17 p.m., Keith A. Bolduc, 59, of Augusta, was arrested on Bangor Street on a charge of violating condition of release.

8:47 p.m., Nicholas Elof Menghini, 37, of Augusta, was arrested on Green Street on a warrant charging him with being a fugitive from justice.

9:40 p.m., Daphne Alex, 70, of Augusta, was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass after an incident of criminal trespass was reported by a Civic Center Drive caller.

SUMMONSES

IN AUGUSTA Tuesday at 12:18 p.m., a 41-year-old Winthrop woman was issued a summons charging her with leaving the scene of a property damage accident following a report of an accident by a Civic Center Drive caller.

4 p.m., a 12-year-old was issued a summons charging theft by unauthorized taking or transfer after an Edison Drive caller reported a theft.

6:02 p.m., a 45-year-old man from Augusta was issued a summons on an assault charge and a 17-year-old was issued a summons on a criminal mischief charge following an incident reported by a New England Road caller.

IN HALLOWELL, Wednesday at 12:46 a.m., a 32-year-old Randolph resident was issued a summons charging failure to register a vehicle.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services removed a 5-year-old child from a home on Verona Island this week after drug enforcement agents allege that the child’s parents and another man were operating a methamphetamine lab in the residence.

According to a statement from Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland, agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency on Tuesday arrested 27-year-old Craig Kneeland, of Verona Island, on Class A felony charges of aggravated operation of a meth lab and violating conditions of release.

State agents also arrested the child’s parents, 28-year-old Jami Cass, also of Verona Island, and 22-year-old Chandler Levesque, of Bucksport. Police say they were living at the home with their child.

In addition to the charge of illegally operating a meth lab, Cass and Levesque were charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The child was placed in another living arrangement by the state agency, McCausland said.

“MDEA agents received information Tuesday that Kneeland had been making methamphetamine at his Bridges Road mobile home on Verona Island,” McCausland said. “Agents learned that the mobile home that Kneeland lived in had been the scene of a fire, although the fire department was never called.”

The manufacture of meth has the potential to be highly flammable.

On Tuesday afternoon, drug agents located Kneeland leaving a local hardware store where he purchased muriatic acid and lithium batteries, which are both used to make meth. Agents took Kneeland back to his home and found quantities of meth, items and ingredients used to make meth, and a loaded .357-caliber handgun. They also discovered 33 plastic bottles believed used to make meth.

Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It can take the form of a white, odorless, bitter tasting crystalline power that can be easily dissolved in water or alcohol.

McCausland said that Kneeland has five outstanding warrants for his arrest including operating after suspension and trafficking in prison contraband.

Verona Island is a town in Hancock County that sits on an island in the Penobscot River between Prospect and Bucksport.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

YORK – A Maine man faces federal charges of sending false, threatening emails that appeared to be from local police and education officials.

The Portsmouth Herald reports 22-year-old Austin Santoro is charged with 11 felonies that each carries up to five years in prison. Some charges say Santoro sent emails threatening rape at gunpoint that appeared to be from the police chief in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to female members of the department. Chief Robert Merner said he never sent those emails.

Police later determined the emails were sent from a Czech-based website that lets users falsify emails.

Public defender J. Hilary Billings said Wednesday that he doesn’t want to comment on the allegations.

Three experts in juvenile justice urged lawmakers on Wednesday to do a top-to-bottom assessment of how the state responds to troubled children.

The recommendation came during a joint meeting of two legislative committees to discuss ongoing problems at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, the state’s only correctional facility for youths, where a suicide by a transgender teen in 2016 and turmoil among the staff have highlighted what advocates say is a failing model of rehabilitating children accused of crimes.

The three policy experts urged lawmakers to think in broader terms.

“It’s not about Long Creek or DHHS or the Department of Corrections,” said Jill M. Ward, project manager at the Maine Center for Juvenile Policy and Law at the University of Maine School of Law. “It’s about what are our responses to kids, and what are the outcomes.”

Ward praised the Department of Corrections for participating in a September report by the Center for Children’s Law and Policy that identified systemic weaknesses in how Long Creek administers programs and treats children.

Doing a similar assessment for programs outside of the juvenile justice program means winning the cooperation of the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers many of the wrap-around programs that families and children interact with before, during and after they are incarcerated.

“It’s not sexy and immediate and fun but it’s really important to understand where the gaps and the needs are before you start expending resources,” Ward said. “The assessment is about doing your homework.”

Absent from the meeting were representatives from DHHS and the Department of Corrections, who did not respond to invitations from the committees to discuss the situation and provide information.

Corrections Commissioner Joseph Fitzpatrick declined to comment.

Mara Sanchez, a researcher at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, emphasized that research has shown that alternative models of treating youthful offenders are more effective and cost less than the large-scale institutionalization at places like Long Creek, where children are removed from their home communities. The preferred model is community-based and diverts children away from incarceration and into local programs to help them and their families.

A common factor among many of these children is trauma, abuse or abandonment by people in their lives who are supposed to support them.

“I think we have to look at who these youth are, what they’re presented with,” said Tonya DiMillo, a social worker and the chair of the Long Creek board of visitors, which monitors conditions at the youth jail. “A lot of these young people come from chronic poverty. They’ve been abused by those who they’re supposed to trust. They’ve been wired, their brains and bodies, by trauma. I don’t think we’re looking at root causes.”

Legislators vowed to meet again in the future to continue the discussion about Long Creek and how to improve juvenile justice in the state, but no firm dates have been set – the legislative session ends in two weeks, and after the 2018 statewide elections, lawmakers will have a new governor and administration to contend with.

Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:

mbyrne@pressherald.com

Twitter: MattByrnePPH

Correction: This story was updated at 12 p.m. Thursday, April 5, 2018, to correct a quote by Tonya DiMillo.

A Berwick man was arrested earlier this week for the fifth time drunk-driving charges, Maine State Police said.

Lance Faucher Maine State Police photo

Trooper Connor Walton on Monday stopped a motor vehicle operating in the breakdown lane of Route 202 in Lebanon, state police said in Facebook post. Police said the vehicle was driven by 30-year-old Lance Faucher of Berwick.

“Faucher attempted to get out of the vehicle, and was failing to listen to commands to stay in the vehicle,” the post said. “Signs of impairment were detected and field sobriety tests were conducted.”

State Police said Faucher failed those tests and was subsequently arrested for OUI and operating as a habitual offender – both Class C felonies.

Faucher was transported to the York County Jail. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday. A jail intake worker said Faucher was still being held at jail Wednesday evening on $7,000 cash bail.

In the Facebook release, state police said Faucher has four prior OUI convictions on his driving record.

A Lisbon man was arrested Wednesday evening after he allegedly made a threat on Facebook that he would blow up a building of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Alexander Hanks, 24, was arrested in Lewiston just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday. He was charged with terrorizing, a Class C felony, after police received an anonymous tip, according to a news release from Chief Marc Hagan of the Lisbon Police Department.

Police didn’t find any firearms or bomb making materials in Hanks’ home after obtaining a warrant to search it, Hagan said.

After learning of the alleged threat, police notified the Maine DHHS office in Lewiston about it, according to Hagan. But Hanks did not make his alleged threat about a specific Maine DHHS building. The state agency has multiple locations in Augusta and other parts of the state.

Hagan said the incident points to a broader problem involving threats on social media.

“(W)e continue to see a lack of awareness of the consequences of what people are posting on social media sites,” Hagan said in an email. It “is unacceptable to threaten people’s lives, no matter what the format used to transmit the threat, and we will treat all threats as valid until proven otherwise.”

A Maine DHHS spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for information on Thursday.

After police located Hanks in Lewiston at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesday, he was brought to Androscoggin County Jail without incident.

His bail was set at $2,500. He is scheduled to appear at the Androscoggin County Courthouse in June.

Charles Eichacker — 621-5642

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @ceichacker

The city of Portland plans to file suit against drug manufacturers over the impact of the opioid epidemic on the community.

Portland officials said they will file the suit in Cumberland County Superior Court Thursday afternoon, seeking damages for the impact. The Portland City Council unanimously agreed last fall to file the suit, after other cities had taken the move.

The suit will name nearly a dozen pharmaceutical companies that make opioid painkillers along with “various doctors involved in the distribution of these drugs,” according to the city’s spokeswoman.

The suit will be handled by local lawyers along with attorneys from the Napoli Scholnick firm of New York City, which is representing other cities that have filed similar suits across the country.

Portland officials also said the suit is being handled on contingency basis, meaning there will be no cost to the city. The lawyers will take a percentage of the damages if the suit against the drug manufacturers is successful.

A 22-year-old Rockport man is expected to be arraigned in Massachusetts next week on murder charges in the slayings of his mother, grandparents and the grandparents’ caretaker.

Orion Krause was indicted last week by a Middlesex County grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder, according to Meghan Kelly, communications director for the Middlesex County district attorney.

A conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, Kelly said.

Krause has been held in jail since his arrest Sept. 8 in connection with the killings of his 60-year-old mother, Elizabeth “Buffy” Krause; her parents, Frank Darby Lackey III, 89, and Elizabeth Lackey, 85, both of Common Street in Groton, Mass.; and the grandparents’ caretaker, Bertha Mae Parker, 68, also of Groton.

According to police reports, Krause confessed to police that he killed his family with a baseball bat and said he “freed” them.

A judge ruled in October that Krause was competent to stand trial.

Krause’s family and others were increasingly concerned about his state of mind in the days and hours before the killings, and had notified police.

Elizabeth Lackey Krause remembered during a vigil in September. Staff photo by Derek Davis

Documents filed in court last year detailed that his mother had called police the night before the killings, concerned about whether he might harm himself, according to transcripts of her call. She made the call at 9:41 p.m. Sept. 7 from her home in Rockport.

In that call, Elizabeth Krause said her son had been troubled.

She later told the dispatcher that her son was a “very mild soul” and that there were no drugs involved.

Police said Orion Krause later called his mother and said he was in Boston and needed a ride home. Police have not said what happened to the car he had been driving.

When his mother picked him up, she took him to her parents’ home in Groton, located about 40 miles northwest of Boston.

The next day, an hour before police would discover the four bodies, police were alerted that Krause had called a professor at Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, and said he planned to kill his mother.

The wife of Oberlin College professor Jamey Haddad told police that “Krause stated to Haddad that he ‘had done something bad,’ and had stolen some money and his mother’s car,” Rockport Sgt. James Moore wrote in his report of the call. “Krause stated to Haddad twice during the conversation, ‘I think I have to kill my mom.’ Haddad asked Krause to repeat himself, and that was when Krause stated it a second time,” according to court documents.

Groton police were called shortly before 6 p.m. on Sept. 8 and went to Elizabeth Krause’s parents’ house.

Orion Krause

Orion Krause, naked, covered in mud, with some blood on him, had stopped at a home in his grandparents’ neighborhood on Common Street to tell the resident he had killed four people. Krause repeated his statement that he had killed four people and identified who they were to police, according to the police report.

Krause is a 2013 graduate of Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport and graduated in May from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied music.

Friends say that Krause was a kind, musically gifted person. Krause had told a nurse during a medical evaluation that he uses heroin, according to the police reports.

Rockport police had one contact with Krause about a year before, but the details of that matter have not been released. Rockport/Camden Police Chief Randy Gagne said it was not a criminal matter.

Krause’s defense attorney, Edward Wayland, said in September that his client’s mental state at the time of his arrest was an open question.

“No one should make any assumptions about anything he is alleged to have said, including that any of it was actually true. Determining the truth is what the legal process is designed to do and it has barely begun to do it,” the attorney from Boston said in his statement last month.

WARREN — Three people remained at the Knox County Jail in Rockland Thursday following a brief car chase Wednesday during which one suspect was tossing crack cocaine out a window.

Chamara Cox, 31, of Rochester, N.Y., and Derrick Presha, 38, of Buffalo, N.Y., were arrested and charged with Class A aggravated trafficking in drugs.

The bail commissioner set bail at $50,000 cash for Cox and Presha.

Kenneth Judkins, 32, of Waldoboro, was arresed for violating a condition of release and refusing to submit to arrest. No bail was set for him, because he was on bail for a prior drug charge out of Lincoln County.

They are scheduled to make their initial appearances Friday in Knox County Unified Court.

The arrests came after a several-week investigation into a group of people from New York coming to the Midcoast to sell crack cocaine and heroin.

Agents arrested Presha as he and Cox were conducting a drug transaction in a parking lot on Route 1 in Warren.

While Presha was being arrested, Cox took off in her rental car and was pursued by officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Waldoboro Police, according to Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisory Agent James Pease. Cox was seen throwing out crack cocaine on Route 1 in Waldoboro, Pease said. Waldoboro Police were able to stop the car by Moody’s Diner and arrest her.

Agents seized four bags of crack cocaine on the floor of the car. Waldoboro Police, with the assistance of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office canine, were able to recover the bags of crack cocaine that Cox had thrown out of the car.

With the assistance of Thomaston and Rockland police, as well as the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, agents conducted two consent searches at the suspects’ hotel rooms in Thomaston. A total of 50 grams of crack cocaine, of which 25 rocks of crack cocaine were packed for sale, six grams of heroin and about $3,000 in cash were seized. Cox was found in possession of three different New York driver’s licenses.

The Knox and Lincoln county sheriff’s offices, Maine State Police, Thomaston Police, Waldoboro Police and Rockland Police assisted in the investigation over the last couple of weeks.

This bust comes three weeks after a New York City woman and a Buffalo, N.Y., woman were arrested in Warren on charges of dealing crack and powder cocaine.