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

October 7, 2012

Dispatches

PORTLAND

Local man, 23, faces charges he tried to run down trooper

A Portland man has been indicted on charges that he tried to run down a Maine State Police trooper along the Maine Turnpike.

Matthew Cole was indicted Friday on charges of eluding an officer, criminal speed, reckless conduct and violating conditions of release.

Police said the 23-year-old Cole was driving an unregistered car on the turnpike on Sept. 15 when Trooper Kyle Wells tried to pull him over.

Police said Cole sped off and crashed his car near Exit 42 in Scarborough.

The trooper was outside his vehicle when, police said, Cole began backing up toward him. Police said the trooper fired at Cole's car and Cole was not injured.

LEWISTON

Police seek shooter who fired at apartment building

Police in Lewiston are looking for someone who fired several shots at an apartment building.

No one was hurt. Police said the shots were fired at River Valley Village about 5 p.m. Friday.

The Sun Journal reported that witnesses said they saw a pair of men drive up in a small silver car before fleeing just moments after the gunshots.

Police cordoned off a corner of a parking lot. Shell casings were scattered across the lot.

AUGUSTA

Smart-meter foes pressing PUC to eliminate opt-out fee

Smart-meter opponents in Maine are continuing to press for the Public Utilities Commission to eliminate a fee imposed on customers who opt out of the program.

Ed Friedman said there should be no fee for choosing not to allow installation of a device that he says is both an invasion of privacy and a health risk.

Two dozen activists protested last week outside the PUC offices in Augusta.

The commission thought it had dealt with health and safety concerns in 2010, when the issue was first raised. But the state supreme court sided with opponents of the meters, who argued that regulators ignored their legal mandate to ensure the delivery of "safe, reasonable and adequate" utility service.

Now, the commissioners have opened a new investigation.

LYMAN

Ultralight crash injures two, sparks investigation by FAA

Two people were injured when the ultralight plane they were in crashed Saturday morning near the Oakwood mobile home park on Beech Street, the chief of the Goodwin's Mills Fire Department said.

The crash was reported shortly before 9 a.m., according to Chief Rodger Hooper. Firefighters found the plane in the woods about 100 feet from Beech Street, he said, and the two occupants were out of the aircraft and walking around when they arrived.

He said both men were treated for cuts and bruises at the scene and then taken to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford. One man had a head injury and was subsequently taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, Hooper said. The other man had a cut on his hand and bruise on his leg.

Hooper said he didn't have names of the two men, and their conditions Saturday night were unknown.

An inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration was at the site Saturday and that agency will investigate the crash. Hooper said the pilot told him his engine lost power.

"He said he started losing rpms and came down," Hooper said.

No one was injured on the ground and there was no fire at the scene, Hooper said. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection was called in because of a fuel spill from the aircraft, Hooper said, but the amount was less than three gallons.

(Continued on page 2)

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