Cops & Courts - Portland Press Herald (2024)

The former South Portland High School student has pleaded not guilty to a charge of criminal solicitation for murder.

Maine has been quietly sending people found not criminally responsible for their crimes to a controversial, for-profit facility in South Carolina where they say they are not getting mental health treatment.

Matthew Cote, 23, is pleading not guilty and not criminally responsible to two counts of murder and one count of arson in the June 2021 slayings.

The worker would be hired by the city in the hopes of connecting people with substance use disorder with help.

The jury deliberated for more than nine hours following a two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The AG said Portland police were justified when they shot and killed Kyle Desmarais, 42, in December after he got out of his car and fired at two 2 officers.

The governor says the judge had the authority to appoint an attorney to represent an indigent defendant.

Dr. Merideth Norris is facing 16 counts of illegal distribution of a controlled substance. The jury will return Friday morning.

Police found Patrick Hargis and Robert Hargis, of Hiram, hiding in the wall of a house in Limington less than a mile from the scene of the accident.

Police were called to a residence on Tuesday night and arrested 71-year-old Carl Hiebert.

Federal agents say the alleged operation is near a day care and a middle school.

Dr. Merideth Norris is facing 16 counts of illegal distribution of controlled substances for writing prescriptions that prosecutors say put her patients in danger.

Police say Leein Hinkley threatened a woman and her boyfriend before setting a fire that burned her home early Saturday; Hinkley died in a shootout with police.

Robert Card's battalion commander said his team did all it could to respond to warnings about Card's failing mental health last year and that his medical providers and police should have taken more responsibility.

The Maine Fraternal Order of Police and the Maine State Troopers Association released a joint statement Sunday blaming District Court Judge Sarah Churchill for gunman and arsonist Leein Hinkley's actions Saturday.

'I think we are fighting a cultural battle here,' the head of the office says.

David Roy, 61, of Berlin, New Hampshire, was killed Saturday evening when a vehicle drove onto Route 26 in the path of Roy's motorcycle.

Leein Amos Hinkley, 42, was shot and killed Saturday morning during a standoff stemming from an overnight assault and arson, said local and state police Saturday afternoon.

Neither the 13 children on the bus nor the driver were injured, police say.

The woman was driving while impaired when she hit a utility pole on Powell Road about 11 a.m. Friday, police say.

Leein Amos Hinkley, 43, was shot dead by police during the hourslong standoff on Russell Avenue in Auburn early Saturday morning.

In a plea deal with prosecutors, a murder charge against Daniel Lafrenier was dropped to manslaughter in exchange for his guilty plea.

Zacheriah Adams, 33, of Jay, was arrested after police laid down spike mats, causing the pickup truck he was driving to stop.

Police have linked Timothy Riley of Westbrook and Kyle Allman of Hollis to robberies at a Waterboro bank Wednesday and a Buxton store last week.

Kimberly Sylvester will be on probation for a year and pay $500 in restitution.

The incident will be investigated by the Office of the Maine Attorney General, which is standard protocol for all police shootings.

Dr. Merideth Norris is accused of writing life-threatening prescriptions for 5 patients. The case against her relies heavily on opinions from Dr. Timothy E. King, an expert for the prosecution.

Damion Butterfield, 24, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for Derald Coffin's death in 2022.

The prosecution's expert witness spent most of Wednesday criticizing the prescribing practices of Dr. Merideth Norris, who is facing multiple counts of illegal distribution of controlled substances.

Christopher Belliveau, 38, was arrested in Berwick on Wednesday in connection with the 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol. He is charged with 5 felonies and 3 misdemeanors.

Randal J. Hennessey is accused of killing his landlord, Douglas P. Michaud Jr., in front of his pregnant girlfriend. At a pre-trial hearing Tuesday, attorneys debated what evidence should be allowed at the upcoming trial.

In the first day of a federal trial against Dr. Merideth Norris, prosecutors say she was prescribing incredibly high doses to her patients, catching the attention of local pharmacists. Norris and those coming to her defense say pain management is incredibly complex.

An FBI bulletin included in the 3,000 pages of documents state police released Friday said Robert Card frightened a friend with his erratic behavior just before the mass shooting in Lewiston, but the man later admitted to police that he was lying.

Theresa York pleaded guilty Monday to theft charges for stealing from her former friend and employer, dental clinic owner Pamela Anzelc.

Johanna Carr said Robert Card could have easily figured out if she was at Schemengees and would have known she wasn't at Just-in-Time Recreation, the two places Card killed 18 people in October.

Joshua Goncalves-Radding, 21, was sentenced for four counts of manslaughter and other charges in a Hanco*ck County courtroom on Friday.

The Maine State Police on Friday released more than 3,000 pages of heavily redacted documents from their investigation into the state's deadliest mass shooting.

The alleged assault, which according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office occurred on March 25, was reported by the parents to the school resource officer on May 28.

Sheriff Dale Lancaster told the county’s Board of Commissioners that his office has made investigating illegal marijuana growing operations a priority because 'those profits are used to buy the chemicals to send to the cartel to make fentanyl.'

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says Thomas Morawiec has been charged with a misdemeanor and summonsed to appear in court on Aug. 14.

Nakoma Polches, 42, was arrested Tuesday in Massachusetts, where he is currently being held.

The verdict comes after Irineu B. Goncalves, 35, threatened, strangled and brutally beat his ex-girlfriend outside a Waterville hotel in 2023. Authorities said he entered a dissociative state and 'showed no response' after being tased twice and repeatedly pepper sprayed.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled that the child, who was found unresponsive in the parking lot of the Thomaston Walmart, died as a result of blunt force trauma.

Cote Noonan, 33, was arrested in 2023 after police say they found thousands of explicit images of young children. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each of two counts and up to $250,000 in fines.

An attorney for Abdirahman Mahmoud told a judge Tuesday that the victim, Raoul Tshiyuka, had punched Mahmoud.

The lawsuit, filed four days before a similar complaint regarding a jail inmate who died by suicide, alleges that Mitchell Watson of Dexter was exposed to lethal drugs inside the Madison jail and was not given proper medical attention.

The lawyer for a witness in the case says she intended to plead the 5th Amendment if questioned.

Prosecutors say Merton Weed Jr. stole more than $240,000 intended for businesses struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vermont State Police worked with a DNA technology company to do genealogy analysis that led them the mother and father, who confirmed they were the parents.