STANDISH

Dispatcher accused of stealing gas from town

A public safety dispatcher has been accused of stealing 200 gallons of gasoline since August from the town pump.

William Rice, 49, of Richville Road in Standish was issued a court summons by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office charging him with misdemeanor theft and felony forgery.

An audit of town records showed more than 200 gallons of fuel unaccounted for since August, the sheriff’s office said. Rice allegedly was pumping gas into his own vehicle on workdays, then altering fuel logs so it looked like sheriff’s deputies had used the fuel for their vehicles.

Rice is a former deputy fire chief for the town. He was charged with theft on Dec. 20.

Altering government documents is a felony charge, which the Cumberland County District Attorney approved in the past week.

Rice is scheduled to appear in court in Portland on Feb. 21.

BALDWIN

Man accused of paying girls to have sex in his presence

A Baldwin man who allegedly paid teenage girls to have sex in front of him and gave them marijuana is facing felony charges, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

Robert Brower, 41, of Dearborn Road was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to be in court for an initial appearance today.

Police say Brower paid girls younger than 18 to perform sex acts in his presence. The incidents happened within the past several months at Brower’s home and recently were referred to the sheriff’s office by the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Detective Sgt. James Estabrook. The state agency had been alerted by someone who is legally obligated to report cases of child victimization, he said.

Brower is not accused of having sex with or sexually touching the girls. Estabrook would not say how old the girls are and said they are from Greater Portland.

Brower is charged with three counts of aggravated promotion of prostitution, three counts of patronizing prostitution of a minor and two counts of aggravated furnishing drugs. He also faces a charge from York County of failure to appear in court on a charge of driving with a suspended license.

He was held on $25,000 bail in the Cumberland County Jail.

WASHINGTON, Maine

Police Taser, pepper spray, knee man high on bath salts

Police say a man who was high on the drug known as bath salts had to be hit with a Taser six times, pepper sprayed twice and kneed in the stomach before police could subdue him.

Police arrested Tony Bartlett, 21, of Washington on Tuesday after responding to a domestic complaint from his girlfriend.

Authorities say Bartlett at first had the couple’s 6-month-old baby in his arms and refused to give him up, squeezing him so hard he started to cry.

The Bangor Daily News reported that the responding officer had to knee Bartlett while his father grabbed the baby. The officer then Tasered and pepper-sprayed Bartlett repeatedly.

Bartlett apologized to the officer.

Bath salts can cause disorientation, extreme paranoia and violence.

ROCHESTER, N.H.

Maine man suspected of robbing store is arrested

Police in Maine have arrested a man who is suspected of robbing a clerk at knifepoint at a Cumberland Farms store in New Hampshire.

Police in Berwick said they arrested David Shibles, 19, of Lebanon on Thursday during a motor vehicle stop. Police said that evidence recovered near the store led to an arrest warrant for him.

In Rochester, police got a call at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday that the store had been robbed. The clerk was not hurt.

BANGOR

Sex offender indicted on 10 counts of sexual abuse

A registered sex offender has been indicted by a Penobscot County grand jury on 10 counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Carey Gonyer of Charleston, who spent more than two years in federal prison for possession of child pornography, was indicted Wednesday. Authorities say the charges involve one boy who was 15 at the time of the alleged crimes.

Prosecutors say the sexual-abuse charges and the possession of pornography charge are related, but they would not say exactly how.

Gonyer was required to register as a sex offender because of his conviction in federal court in 2006.

Prosecutors told the Bangor Daily News that Gonyer was on supervised release for that crime when some of the alleged abuse occurred.

MOSCOW, Maine

Real estate company buys former Air Force property

A Portland-based real estate firm with ties to a Massachusetts construction company has paid $730,000 for nearly 1,500 acres of former Air Force land in Moscow that was once home to a radar system.

A spokesman for the U.S. General Services Administration said the tract was purchased by Western Maine Realty.

Western Maine Realty is owned by Jay Cashman, chairman of the board for the heavy construction company Jay Cashman Inc. of Quincy, Mass.

A company official told the Morning Sentinel that there are no firm plans for the property, which includes four buildings.

The buildings once held the Air Force’s Over-the-Horizon-Backscatter radar system, developed in the 1970s and shut down in the 1990s. The equipment scanned from Greenland to Cuba for approaching Soviet missiles and planes.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sen. Collins goes another year without missing vote

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has completed another year without missing a vote.

The Maine Republican extended her perfect voting record with a consecutive voting streak that extended to 4,825 roll call votes in 2011.

Collins said she takes her responsibilities seriously, and that includes voting. Collins has said she looked up to Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Smith held the record in the Senate until 1981, with 2,941 consecutive roll call votes.

PRESQUE ISLE

Agents search suspected meth lab in apartment

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency is investigating a suspected methamphetamine lab in Presque Isle.

Officials searched the apartment on Main Street on Thursday.

The occupants of the apartment were not at home but have been interviewed by DEA agents. Authorities say significant evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing has been found at the home and the evidence will be analyzed.

Agents and chemists removed evidence from the home Thursday afternoon.

TREMONT

Quarry owner, blasting firm cited for safety violations

Federal officials have cited a quarry owner and a blasting company for safety violations stemming from an errant blast that sent debris flying and pelted nearby homes with rocks.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration told the Bangor Daily News it has issued citations to quarry owner John Goodwin Jr. and David Eastman, owner of Northern Drilling and Blasting, for failing to provide ample warning to neighbors before the blast Nov. 17 at a quarry in Tremont on Mount Desert Island.

The mine safety administration issued other citations to Goodwin, Eastman and two foremen at the quarry for safety violations for general conditions and operating procedures at the quarry.

— From staff and news services