SANFORD

Man charged with holding wife, children at gunpoint

Additional Photos

Portland firefighters head into 190 Danforth St. on Friday morning to put out a fire in a second-floor apartment, as Deputy Chief David Pendleton, right, talks with tenants. No one was injured but there was heavy smoke in the building. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Police say a man who held his family at gunpoint overnight is charged with domestic violence criminal threatening.

Police were called to 93 Railroad Ave. in Springvale just before 2 p.m. Thursday and found Richard Crocker, 36, outside the house. His wife and three children were inside, and the woman said they had been kept there since Wednesday, police said. Crocker had unplugged the telephones, she said.

The woman said she had minor injuries and the children were unharmed, police said.

Crocker said the woman could have left, but not with the children, so she stayed, calling police when Crocker went outside, allegedly to commit suicide, police said.

Police recovered a pistol after arresting Crocker.

He was taken to Goodall Hospital for an evaluation and was held in the York County Jail on $25,000 bail.

PORTLAND

Apartment house residents escape a morning fire

Portland firefighters quickly extinguished a fire in a second-floor apartment at 190 Danforth St. on Friday morning.

The fire was reported by residents about 9:30 a.m. There was light smoke coming out of the apartment windows and heavy smoke inside, said Deputy Fire Chief David Jackson.

Residents of the apartment and occupants of nearby apartments left the building.

Nobody was injured. The fire department is investigating the cause.

ALFRED

Standish woman indicted in five more arson blazes

A grandmother from Standish who is accused of setting a string of fires in Cumberland and York counties has been indicted on more arson charges.

A York County grand jury has indicted Carol Field, 65, on five more counts of arson.
WMTW-TV reported that the state Fire Marshal’s Office said Field could be responsible for as many as 18 fires.

Most occurred in vacant buildings or wooded areas, but a fire in July at the Raymond Hill Baptist Church caused an estimated $200,000 in damage. There have been no injuries.

Field became a suspect in September after a witness saw a car leaving a fire scene and gave investigators a partial license plate number and vehicle description.

Her lawyer says she has no history of violence.

ROCKLAND

Alleged forger seeks welfare to pay CMP bill, police say

Police say a Rockland man lied and forged documents to try to get welfare benefits they say he needed to pay a delinquent $1,000 electricity bill.

Police said Thursday that Jeremy Wadsworth, 26, went to the general assistance office at Rockland City Hall in an attempt to get money, falsifying information on his written application and forging a rent receipt to support the lies on the application.

He has been charged with forgery.

Police told the Bangor Daily News that Wadsworth owes Central Maine Power Co. $1,000.

Wadsworth does not yet have a court date.

YORK

Police look for N.H. man suspected of robbing bank

Police have issued an arrest warrant for a Manchester, N.H., man who is suspected of robbing a Savings Bank of Maine branch on Nov. 23.

Police issued the warrant Thursday for Bernard Subocz, 43. Detectives say they linked Subocz to the robbery after an extensive investigation.

Police say a masked man told a teller he had a gun, though he did not show one, demanded money and left on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The suspect was described as white, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a medium build, 35 to 45 years old, with a couple days’ growth of facial hair. He was wearing a black watch cap, with eye holes cut into it, pulled down over his face, a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black gloves.

Police ask that anyone with information about Subocz or the robbery call Seacoast Crime Stoppers at (603) 431-1199.

LIVERMORE

Tests fail to determine cause of water’s odor

The odor emanating from the water in the Livermore highway garage’s well remains a mystery.

Town Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub said tests on the water done at the state lab in Augusta have revealed no contaminants and determined that the water is safe.

Schaub and highway foreman Roger Ferland were concerned about the odor because an underground fuel tank at the garage had leaked. No fuel remnants were found in the water. Some have described it as a musty odor.

The well was drilled in the 1990s.

Schaub told the Sun Journal the focus is now on the hot water tank, which could be replaced.

SKOWHEGAN

Suspect in 1980 killing loses effort to obtain bail

A man who was arrested last year and charged with killing a woman more than three decades ago has lost his bid to remain free while awaiting trial.

A justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court’s decision Thursday and ordered Jay Mercier, 56, of Industry to continue being held without bail, based on the nature of the crime and the evidence against him.

Mercier was arrested in September and charged in the death of 20-year-old Rita St. Peter, whose battered body was found on a roadside in Anson in July 1980.

He was tied to the killing through DNA evidence.

Mercier’s lawyer argued that a police affidavit in the case was unreliable and that his client is not a flight risk.

BETHEL

Sex offender charged with abusing a teenager

Police say a registered sex offender living in Bethel has been charged with sexually abusing a teenager.

Rumford Detective Sgt. James Bernard said Christopher Lee Sheldon, 27, was charged Thursday with two felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Bernard told the Sun Journal that on New Year’s Day police received a complaint from a 16-year-old girl who told them she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Sheldon starting when she was 15.

According to the Maine Sex Offender Registry, Sheldon was convicted in 2005 of unlawful sexual contact.

He is required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

– From staff and news services

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