PORTLAND

Scarcelli wins ruling over mother in housing dispute

Additional Photos

Noelle Webster, a Cape Elizabeth High School senior, paints a mural on the exterior wall of The 50’s Pub in downtown Biddeford Thursday. Webster, who is planning to attend Rhode Island School of Design in the fall, is creating the mural as part of a graduation service requirement. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli has scored a victory in a legal dispute with her mother over housing projects.

U.S. District Judge George Singal ruled Thursday that Pamela Gleichman, Scarcelli’s mother, is not entitled to proceeds from any sale of a subsidized apartment project in Norwalk, Conn. The judge issued a similar preliminary injunction in April.

Gleichman, who lives in Illinois, is the managing general partner and Scarcelli is a general partner in Oak Knoll Associates Limited Partnership, which owns the project.

According to Scarcelli, Gleichman is having severe financial problems and has asserted that she is entitled to part of the proceeds from a sale of the project. Scarcelli notes that her mother is seeking to sell the property for $950,000 less than the price she rejected two years ago.

In his order, Singal found that the terms of the current purchase and sale agreement are inconsistent with reasonable business judgment and that Gleichman’s pursuit of the sale is to advance her personal interests.

Singal ruled that Gleichman must turn over any proceeds from a sale to a trust that is a limited partner in the Oak Knoll project and that Gleichman cannot enter into any contract for the sale of the project without permission from Scarcelli.

Scarcelli has a separate federal lawsuit against her mother and stepfather, Karl Norberg, claiming mismanagement of housing projects. That case has not yet been resolved.

Public art talk planned for tonight in Monument Square

As part of tonight’s First Friday Art Walk, the Portland Public Art Committee will hold the second talk in its “Art in Our Front Yard: Portland’s Public Art Collection” series. The discussion will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Jewel Box Bus Shelter at Monument Square. Committee member Lin Lisberger will talk about the artwork, its history and significance in the city’s collection.

Designed by Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan, the Jewel Box was installed in Monument Square in 2004 to create focus and reflect the energy of Congress Street. The shelter is designed to act as a counterpoint to the traditional architecture in the square.

The functional piece is one of a handful within the city’s collection.

The surfaces of the shelter are faceted like a jewel, with walls bending every three feet, giving the panes of glass a variety of reflective angles. The shelters other surfaces are abstracted from features of Maine’s marine environment.

Police to swear in new command staff, supervisors

Portland police will hold a swearing-in ceremony today for new command staff and supervisors.

Chief Michael Sauschuck has selected Vern Malloch to be assistant chief, the No. 2 position in the department, and Gary Rogers will replace Malloch as commander, the No. 3 position in the chain of command.

Robert Doherty and Cliff Strout will be promoted from sergeant to lieutenant during the ceremony, which will begin at 9 a.m. in the auditorium at police headquarters.

AUGUSTA

Woman charged with stealing cemetery flowers

A Sabattus woman has been charged with stealing flowers from the Maine Veterans Cemetery on Civic Center Drive.

Pamela A. Carrier, 66, was issued a summons charging her with theft.

Augusta Police Lt. Christopher Massey said police were called to the cemetery around 1 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a woman stealing flowers from grave sites. Multiple witnesses told police that the woman had taken flowers from several plots.

When confronted by Augusta police Officer Nikolas Hample, Carrier failed to clearly explain why she had taken the flowers and loaded them in her van, Massey said. Carrier said some of the flowers came from relatives’ plots and that others had come from her home, Massey said. There was at least one flower pot that Carrier said she had picked up from a grave accidentally.

“There was no reason for her to come and get these flowers,” Massey said.

Carrier told Hample she was collecting the flowers to place on her husband’s grave at the veterans’ cemetery on Mount Vernon Road.

ROCKLAND

No jail time for woman who assaulted husband’s mistress

A Rockland woman convicted of assaulting another woman who was having an affair with her husband has been spared time behind bars.

Jessica Arsenault, 30, was sentenced Wednesday in Knox County Superior Court to a 30-day suspended jail term and given a year of administrative release, which is similar to probation.

The judge called Arsenault’s assault on the other woman last year an isolated and situational offense that did not require jail time.

Prosecutors asked for jail time because Arsenault had pulled hair from the other woman’s head and bruised her eye during the attack.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Arsenault’s lawyer said the attack was out of character, prompted when she caught her husband and the other woman in bed together.

POLAND

Collection of antique sleighs, buggies to be sold at auction

A unique collection of antique horse-drawn buggies and sleighs is hitting the auction block next week.

Auctioneer Jody McMorrow says he’s never seen a collection quite like it.

The more than 40 sleighs and buggies from the 1800s and early 1900s were collected by Carl Huston Sr., a Lisbon Falls contractor who died last summer at age 77.

McMorrow says many of the items need work but show a craftsmanship not often seen these days.

They range in value from about $50 to several thousand dollars.

Huston’s son told the Sun Journal the collection is being sold because the family has no place to store it. Carl Huston Jr. says he thinks the collection helped his father connect to his youth on a farm.

BANGOR

Two suspects in pharmacy robbery caught in woods

A pharmacy has been robbed for the second time in nine days, but this time, the suspects were caught.

Police say the Rite Aid pharmacy at Union and Fourteenth streets was robbed just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.

An off-duty officer was at the drugstore at the time and called police.

Two men were caught in the nearby woods a short time later.

They were identified by police as 33-year-old Sheldon Hopkins and 18-year-old Darien Young, both of Bangor. They are charged with Class B robbery.

Police say a bag of prescription pills was found near where they were arrested.

No one was hurt.

The same pharmacy was robbed on May 21 by what was described as an older “grubby” man. That suspect remains at large.

Blair protester says he was fired as substitute teacher

The man who was arrested while protesting an appearance at Colby College by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he’s been fired as a substitute teacher.

Lawrence Reichard says he was called to substitute teach at SAD 22, which includes Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport, on 12 of the 16 school days before his May 20 arrest but has not been called since. He’s been a substitute teacher at the district’s high school for eight years.

Reichard, 53, was charged with disorderly conduct while protesting Tony Blair’s commencement address at Colby. He calls Blair a “war criminal.”

He says his treatment is reminiscent of “the anti-communist witch hunts of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy.”

Superintendent Rick Lyons denies that Reichard has been fired. He says Reichard is still on the on-call list but has not been needed.

MILLINOCKET

Warship under construction will be named USS Millinocket

A speedy warship built to transport troops, military vehicles and equipment will be named the USS Millinocket.

Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Rep. Mike Michaud were informed Wednesday of the Navy’s name for the joint high-speed vessel under construction on the Alabama coast.

Collins says the Navy chose the name because “Millinocket personifies the American values of ingenuity and community.”

Snowe says the decision honors Maine as the USS Stephen W. Groves is retired. Groves, from East Millinocket, died in the Battle of Midway in World War II.

Michaud says Maine has a long, proud history of shipbuilding that deserves to be recognized and honored by the naming of the Navy’s vessels.

The ship is tentatively scheduled to be christened in January.

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