Four men are scheduled to appear this week in federal court on charges that they trespassed in a national wildlife refuge on an island off the Maine coast in 2018.
Clayton Witham, 58, of Owls Head; Benjamin Tucker Thompson, 59, of Freeport; Peter Johnson, 58, of Littleton, Mass.; and Thomas Wengler, 59, of South Dennis, Mass., were each charged Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland on single counts of trespass on federal land.
They are scheduled to make their initial court appearances Friday before Magistrate Judge John Rich III to enter pleas, according to online court records.
The maximum sentence that could be imposed upon conviction is 180 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
According to the U.S. attorney’s version of the case, the four men as well as other friends and family members went on the Metinic Island National Wildlife Refuge on the island located 7 miles off St. George on Aug. 11, 2018.
The four pitched tents for overnight, mowed the grass, and built a fire, according to the prosecution.
The federal government owns 149 acres on the northern half of the island. The southern half is privately owned and Witham owns land that abuts the refuge.
The public is prohibited from going on the property from April 1 through Aug. 30 to protect the seasonal nesting of seabirds.
All of the men, other than Witham, had been issued violation notices for the same offense in August 2012.
The refuge was established in 1993. The federal government said the property is posted about the closure in the area where the men landed on the island.
The island is located in Knox County, is about 2 miles long and less than a half mile wide.
Biological technicians are hired seasonally to work on a tern restoration program, according to Maine Coastal Islands website. The interns count the number of terns, control predators of the terns, conduct food habit and productivity studies, and monitor vegetation response to grazing.
There are sheep on the privately owned half of the island.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
