AUGUSTA – A state representative who was jailed on charges that he pulled a gun on a man May 21 was released on $3,500 cash bail Friday.

Rep. Frederick L. Wintle, R-Garland, had a psychological examination at an inpatient facility in southern Maine and was freed from the Kennebec County jail Friday, said Sheriff Randall Liberty.

He was released about 2:30 p.m. Conditions of bail ban him from contact with Michael Seamans of Sidney, a Morning Sentinel photographer, who was identified as the victim.

Republican leaders and others at the State House indicated that Wintle had been acting erratically over the previous few months. He allegedly pointed a .22-caliber handgun at Seamans in the parking lot of Dunkin’ Donuts on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville.

Waterville police characterized Seamans as an innocent bystander.

On May 23, Justice Michaela Murphy set the bail conditions that prohibit Wintle from being at Seamans’ home, workplace or place of education. Wintle is also barred from the Dunkin’ Donuts where the incident occurred and from the Capitol building and state office buildings “absent written permission of the House Speaker Robert Nutting.”

Wintle is scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on July 26 on charges of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed weapon.

Wintle, 58, has no criminal record.

 

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