Man wanted in 2 counties charged with theft of cans> Live-in boyfriend charged with domestic assault

Confronted about scores of cans and bottles he had reportedly taken from a pickup truck Sunday, a Bangor man tried to convince police that they were definitely his because he had been drinking the contents of the receptacles all that day.

But the owner of the truck told police that he saw Richard A. Brooks, 23, take the cans and bottles from his truck and hand them to someone else, who walked off with them.

The owner also pointed out that there was “no way” Brooks could have consumed all that alcohol because the returnables included several 40-ounce beer bottles and several empty half-gallon containers of coffee brandy, reported Officer James Dearing.

The estimated $4.00 in bottles and cans were located on First Street in a shopping cart being pushed by James Johnson, 21.

Returning to Union Street where the incident took place, Johnson told Dearing that Brooks had given him the returnables from the truck and had told him to go to Shaw’s Supermarket to cash them in.

Dispatch reported that Brooks was wanted on two warrants from two counties and Dearing arrested him. The officer also charged Brooks with theft and arrested Johnson on a charge of possession of stolen property.

One warrant was from Hancock County and charged him with failure to pay a fine, while the second was from Kennebec County and charged him with violation of probation.

A Bangor couple traded blows throughout their residence during an argument Sunday evening, but it was the live-in boyfriend, who witnesses said initiated the physical confrontation, who ended up in jail charged with domestic assault.

Called to 47 Mitchell St., shortly after 7 p.m., Bangor police Officer Jim Libby spoke to a 33-year-old woman who was very upset. She said an argument that began with heated words with 34-year-old Eric R. Stevens expanded to physical violence.

The woman said it was in the bedroom that Stevens pushed her and she retaliated by slapping him. He in turn slapped her, the woman told Libby.

In her daughter’s bedroom, the woman struck Stevens in the face with a telephone, breaking his glasses. He reportedly followed her into the front room where he slapped her and pushed her over a couch.

The woman said that out of fear she went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife to fend off Stevens if he came after her.

Two young girls, the woman’s daughter and the girl’s friend, told Libby that they had seen Stevens grab the woman’s wrist while she had the phone in hand and that the woman then struck Stevens with the phone.

Stevens adamantly denied touching, let alone assaulting, his girlfriend. He claimed that besides being hit in the face with the phone, he had been kicked in the genitals and threatened with a knife.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli