SANFORD

Two more women allege rape after arrest of suspect

Sanford police say two more possible rape victims have come forward since the department announced the arrest of a local man, Zachary Garrison, 32, on a charge of gross sexual assault.

Since the announcement was made Wednesday, Detective Cpl. Sarah Roberts said, two women contacted police with allegations that Garrison raped them.

Garrison had not been charged with any more counts Thursday.

Roberts could not specify when the alleged assaults occurred.

Garrison, of 2 Manor Circle, is being held in the York County Jail in Alfred on $15,000 cash bail.

Roberts said police believe there could be more victims in addition to the three women who have come forward. Police are encouraging victims or anyone with information to contact them at 324-9170. 

Police say man solicited sex with minor via computer

Police arrested a Sanford man who they say used his home computer to solicit sex with a girl younger than 14.

Detective Cpl. Sarah Roberts said police officers did a search Thursday at the Brook Street home of Scott Daigle, 44.

Daigle was charged with solicitation of a child under the age of 14 to commit a prohibited act.

Roberts said the intended victim notified Sanford police that she had been contacted by Daigle.

Daigle is being held in the York County Jail in Alfred on $10,000 cash bail.

HARTFORD

Police: Man, 57, set fire to house, then hanged himself

Fire officials say a Hartford man set his house on fire Thursday afternoon and then hanged himself.

Steve McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety said the body of Daniel Stasulis, 57, was discovered in the rubble of the home, which was destroyed by the fire.

Sasulis poured flammable liquid throughout the house and set it on fire, McCausland said.

Investigators found no note to explain his actions, McCausland said. Two years ago, he said, Stasulis led police on a low-speed chase through Falmouth, Yarmouth and North Yarmouth in his pickup truck.

SWANVILLE

Three arrested in probe of oxycodone distribution

A five-month investigation into the distribution of oxycodone pills in Waldo County has led to the arrest of three people, including a Massachusetts man charged with bringing the prescription painkiller into Maine.

Officers with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Arthur Gardiner, 63, and Shelby Tapley, 18, both of Swanville, and Gary Stevens, 30, of Lynn, Mass.

Gardiner was out on bail for an earlier charge of aggravated trafficking in oxycodone, and during a bail check March 28 police arrested him and Tapley on charges of drug possession for allegedly having pills that were not prescribed to them. Officers seized 129 hydrocodone pills, 17 oxycodone pills and 91 anti-anxiety pills, according to the MDEA.

Police investigating the source of the drugs conducted an undercover sting that led to Stevens’ arrest on Wednesday.

Agents met Stevens in a Topsham parking lot and arrested him, seizing 320 oxycodone pills worth about $15,000 on the street, the MDEA said. Police charged Stevens with aggravated trafficking in oxycodone.

BANGOR

Two plead guilty to selling bath salts, face up to 20 years

Federal prosecutors say two Bangor residents have pleaded guilty to selling the synthetic drug known as bath salts.

Authorities say Adam Hathorn, 36, and Tina Keaton, 32, pleaded guilty to the drug-related charges on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Prosecutors say the pair illegally distributed the drug in Penobscot County and elsewhere between April 2011 and December 2011.

They face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine at sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

Hathorn and Keaton are two of 14 people charged as part of the conspiracy.

Bath salts are a synthetic hallucinogenic that can make users delusional and violent.

AUGUSTA

FEMA rejects state’s request for ice storm funding

Gov. Paul LePage says the federal government has rejected Maine’s request to declare a disaster for damage caused by the December ice storm.

LePage said Thursday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that damage “was not beyond the capabilities of the state and local governments.” He said no appeal will be filed of the federal decision made last month.

The state documented more than $1.8 million in damage from the ice storm, which knocked out power to more than 160,000 homes and businesses and left many in the dark for a week.

In a statement Thursday, LePage thanked all of the local responders, road crews, utility workers and volunteers who gave up their Christmas holidays to respond to the storm.

WATERVILLE

Pile of excrement on bridge leads to cleanup confusion

David Nevedomsky was offended Thursday when he saw a large pile of human excrement on the historic Two Cent Bridge, which spans the Kennebec River between Winslow and Waterville.

Nevedomsky said the waste was the latest sign that the graffiti-covered footbridge, which was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, is neglected.

Thursday’s mess and the lack of anyone willing to clean it up also highlights the confusion over the bridge’s upkeep.

Waterville and Winslow public works and law enforcement officials, as well as community groups involved in the bridge’s upkeep, all said Thursday that cleaning up human waste isn’t their responsibility.

City officials in Waterville, which owns the bridge, said the bridge is a regular target of vandals, making its maintenance difficult.

Nevedomsky, 58, a disabled Vietnam veteran, said he asked employees at both the Waterville and the Winslow municipal offices to help, but did not get a helpful response and took matters into his own hands.

“I’ll probably fall in but I don’t give a damn,” he said early Thursday afternoon, shortly before carrying a bucket down to the river’s edge to collect water to wash the bridge with.

Winslow Public Works Director Paul Fongemie said that in his three years with the town he’s never been asked to clean or maintain the bridge.

Waterville Public Works Director Mark Turner said the city maintains the bridge as needed, but when it comes to cleaning up human waste, the public works department is not equipped for the job.

“We can’t put our employees at risk,” he said. “We’re not trained to deal with hazardous materials or biological waste.”

Turner said Nevedomsky should have called the Waterville Police Department.

But police Chief Joe Massey said it wouldn’t be up to his officers to field that kind of call, either.

“I’m not going to have officers go and pick that up,” Massey said. “We’re certainly not going to send uniformed officers down to do that.”