WESTBROOK

Police investigate death after body found in river

Police recovered a body from the Presumpscot River on Monday.

Capt. Michael F. Nugent said the city’s police and fire departments went to the Cumberland Street Bridge around 3:45 p.m. Monday and removed a body from the river.

Nugent, who could not be reached Monday night, said in a press release that the case remains under investigation.

Nugent said no further information would be made available on Monday. He did not say whether the dead person was a male or a female.

HARPSWELL

Woman rescued from rocks on shore after getting lost

Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens helped rescue a Brunswick woman who got lost while hiking with her teenage son in Harpswell.

The sheriff’s office was alerted to the problem at 9 p.m. Sunday. Theresa Desjardins, 45, had been hiking behind the Harpswell town office with her 15-year-old son when they got separated. He found his way out and called for help.

Deputies deployed two dog teams and, after an hour, the woman was found off the Cliff Trail, stranded on the shoreline on rocks, according to a release from Sheriff Kevin Joyce. She was not hurt but was dehydrated and scared.

SACO

Missing man’s body found; death is ruled a suicide

Police say the body of a man who disappeared nearly a month ago has been found and his death has been ruled a suicide.

Kevin L. O’Donnell, 24, of Heath Road was reported missing June 12. He had been seen leaving his house on foot and police asked for help locating him.

Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Holland said O’Donnell’s body was found July 3 in a wooded area off Buxton Road. Saco police were assisted by Maine State Police in the investigation.

BANGOR

Bail set for man charged in Fourth of July shooting

A Bangor man accused of firing shots from an apartment window, forcing the city’s Fourth of July parade to be rerouted, has been ordered held on $100,000 bail.

Police say Perrin Oliver, 43, sent a woman and child fleeing from his apartment Thursday and then fired about 70 shots during a four-hour standoff before a tactical team used tear gas to take him into custody.

Perrin, who made his initial court appearance Monday through video conference from jail, is charged with criminal threatening and aggravated reckless conduct with a firearm. It was unclear if he’s retained a lawyer.

GLOUCESTER, Mass.

Death of Maine fisherman aboard trawler investigated

Massachusetts authorities are investigating the death of a fisherman from Maine aboard a commercial vessel.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard told The Gloucester Daily Times that the crew aboard the 107-foot herring trawler Osprey reported a colleague suffering what appeared to be a “severe asthma attack” about 3:45 a.m. Sunday.

The man was identified as Michael Grindle, 40, of Blue Hill, who lived in Gloucester while he was on the crew. The boat was about 65 miles from Cape Cod and the Coast Guard ordered the vessel to Gloucester. It arrived about 4:30 p.m.

The Essex district attorney’s office says the death does not appear suspicious but an autopsy is scheduled. Police say they are investigating the discovery of a “class A substance” on board.

Police found Grindle’s body on the floor of his stateroom, according to the Daily Times.

Also in the room, police found a “small amount” of the Class A substance, which in Massachusetts includes heroin, morphine, codeine, several other opiates and a number of designer drugs.

CANAAN

Woman pulled from bicycle and sexually assaulted

Maine state police say a 50-year-old woman visiting from Florida was pulled off her bicycle and sexually assaulted in the town of Canaan.

Police say a passerby stopped to assist the cyclist after her attackers fled Sunday afternoon.
She was treated at Redington Fairview Hospital in Skowhegan and released.

Police are asking for the public’s assistance. They want to speak to anyone who traveled along the Whitten Road in Canaan between noon and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

State police in Augusta can be contacted at 624-7076 or (800) 452-4664.

LIVERMORE

Body found off Route 4 after apparent suicide

Police say a man whose body was discovered in a wooded area off Route 4 in Livermore on Monday afternoon died of an apparent suicide.

A dispatcher for the Androscoggin Sheriff’s Office said a crew from a local tree company was working in the area when they discovered a body around 4 p.m.

AUGUSTA

LePage seeks $100 million bond for bridges, roads

Gov. Paul LePage is urging lawmakers to consider a proposed bond for the state’s highways and bridges this week.

The Republican governor said in statement Monday that the Democratic-led Legislature should consider the $100 million transportation bond when it reconvenes Tuesday to finish its business for the session.

But Democratic lawmakers say they will wait until the fall to take up a larger bond package that includes money for transportation, natural resources, research and development and schools.

They say LePage must first officially release more than $100 million in bonds already approved by lawmakers and voters before new bonds are considered.

House Republicans say the Legislature should take up LePage’s transportation bond separately, instead of tying it to other bonds that likely won’t have the same support.

Moody’s: New state budget gives cities ‘credit negative’

The biennial budget that lawmakers approved last month reduces the state funding that cities and towns use to maintain services and makes them more dependent on property taxes, which is a “credit negative” for the local governments, says the Moody’s debt-rating agency.

Moody’s said the designation does not mean that the credit rating or outlook changed, but indicates the impact of a development as one of several factors affecting the credit quality of a municipality.