Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

September 20, 2012

Local & State Dispatches

From staff and news services

ELIOT

Suspect in attempted murder, rape to appear in court Friday

An Eliot man is scheduled to make his initial court appearance at 1 p.m. Friday in Biddeford District Court on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary and rape.

Paul Olsen, 31, is accused of breaking into his former girlfriend's house on Goodwin Road at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and attacking her while two young children, the oldest of whom was 6, were at home. Police said it appears Olsen is the children's father.

Olsen choked the woman until she lost consciousness, hit her and raped her, said Police Chief Theodor Short. The assault lasted through the night, he said.

Olsen finally left the house at 6 a.m. He was arrested by Knox County sheriff's deputies at his grandmother's house in Waldoboro, Short said. Eliot police retrieved him on Thursday. Police thought Olsen might be armed but they did not recover a gun when they arrested him, Short said.

The woman was taken to a hospital, where she was treated and eventually released.

YORK COUNTY

Police charge pair of men with attacking their wives

Two York County men were arrested this week on charges of committing violent assaults against their wives.

Maj. William King Jr. of the York County Sheriff's Office said Johannes Kotze, 23, of Lebanon was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

Police said that Kotze hit his wife with his hands and feet, pushed her down, then held his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams. When she tried to flee, he slapped her in the face and threatened to kill her with a knife, police said.

The victim, who was allowed to go to work provided she promise not to call police, suffered multiple bruises and a bloody nose.

On Wednesday, Matthew Nickerson, 29, of Hollis, was charged with slapping his wife in the face. The couple were driving home from a medical appointment when they started arguing.

When the victim pulled over to the side of the road to call police, Nickerson threw her cellphone out the window before driving off with their 4-year-old son in the back seat, police said. Nickerson was arrested in Waterboro.

ST. GEORGE

After freed from lobster gear, sea turtle swims away unhurt

A leatherback sea turtle was rescued Thursday after it got entangled in lobster gear near Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay.

Kenneth Stewart, a spokesman for the Coast Guard station in South Portland, said the Maine Marine Patrol was contacted around 2 p.m. by the operator of a pleasure boat. The Coast Guard also was notified and sent a 25-foot boat out of Boothbay Harbor to the remote island between St. George and Bristol.

Stewart said officers from the Coast Guard and the marine patrol freed the turtle -- an endangered species -- and saw it swim away unharmed. The turtle was about 5 feet in diameter.

Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtles, can dive to depths of 4,200 feet. They have been known to stay under water for as long as 85 minutes.

FALMOUTH

Auto road rally aims to draw attention to missing children

Two pairs of Mainers are participating in an eight-day, cross-country car rally to draw attention to a missing toddler, Ayla Reynolds, and a missing teenager, Aydriana Tetu.

Bill and Valerie Sowles of the Morong Falmouth car dealership, and Maine tourism director Carolann Ouellette and Tina Scheer from TV's "Survivor Panama" left Maine on Wednesday for Independence, Ohio, for the start of a northeastern Fireball Run, a 15-city event that will end in Bangor. Each team has been assigned a missing child, with a large decal featuring that child affixed to the team vehicle.

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