PORTLAND – A Portland man accused of causing a tense police standoff in the city’s Bayside neighborhood after threatening to kill his girlfriend last month has been arrested again on several new charges, including stealing knives from the L.L. Bean store in Freeport.

Kyle Upton, 28, who had been out on bail, was brought back Thursday to Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court, where Justice William Brodrick ordered him held on $50,000 cash bail for alleged incidents spanning several days and several communities.

Additional Photos

Kyle Upton surrenders – surrounded by Portland police and SWAT Team members – after a standoff on Alder Street in Portland on April 29, 2013. John Ewing / Staff Photographer

Kyle Upton

Previously, Upton had been accused of keeping police at bay outside his former apartment building at 41 Alder St. for about 3½ hours on April 29. Dozens of police officers, some in body armor and carrying assault rifles, had evacuated buildings and kept back crowds before Upton finally surrendered.

Upton faced four criminal charges from that April 29 arrest – domestic violence criminal threatening, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, and three misdemeanors, domestic violence terrorizing, domestic violence assault and failure to sign a summons and complaint form to verify his identity. He was also charged with a civil violation of creating a police standoff.

Police surrounded Upton’s apartment after his former girlfriend reported that he had threatened her, then tapped a handgun against her head, saying “you see this, you see this,” according to court records.

After that arrest, he made his initial bail of $10,000 and was freed with many restrictions: He had been ordered to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and two other people, refrain from drugs and alcohol, possess no weapons and stay at a fixed address with a curfew.

But after his release, Upton allegedly went on a crime spree.

In South Portland, he is accused of using a crowbar to pry open his hotel room door at Super 8 Motel on May 10, after becoming frustrated that the keys to the door were not working. He fled when the motel manager called police, according to a South Portland police report.

In Freeport, Upton was accused of breaking into a display case at L.L. Bean’s hunting and fishing store Sunday, stealing four folding knives and leaving the store without paying, according to a report by Freeport police.

Portland police tracked Upton on Monday to the parking lot of the Howard Johnson Hotel on Riverside Street, where he had been staying with a woman. Police arrested Upton as he left the hotel and walked toward the woman’s car, according to the police report.

Police seized two knives from Upton’s pockets. In the car, officers also found a .25 caliber handgun in the glove box and a purse containing cocaine, Suboxone and other non-prescription pills, according to the report.

Upton now faces nine new charges from the incidents in South Portland, Freeport and Portland — five counts of violation of conditions of his release, two counts of criminal mischief, one count of criminal threatening and one count of theft.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Katherine Tierney, had sought to have Upton’s bail revoked altogether. The judge instead imposed the $50,000 cash amount and imposed an order that if he is released and violates the terms of the release, he would be held without bail until his trials.

Attorney Randall Bates has been appointed to represent Upton. 

Staff Writer Scott Dolan can be contacted at: 791-6304 or at

sdolan@mainetoday.com

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