Vehicle found far into woods; driver arrested

A Bangor police officer early Friday spotted the tow truck first, then the skid marks that crossed Ohio Street by Finson Road and continued off the road and over an embankment.

But there was no vehicle immediately visible.

The wrecker driver pointed Officer James Hassard in the direction of the vehicle, and Hassard could make out a reflector off in the distance. The wrecker driver later told police he needed 100 feet of cable and 25 feet of chain to reach the vehicle.

Hassard reported that the driver came out of the woods and approached him.

Todd M. Dunphy, 37, of Bangor told Hassard that he had stopped at a stop sign but had missed the turn. That caused him to run off the road, he said. Officer Brent Beaulieu was there and reported that he could smell alcohol coming from Dunphy from about 15 feet away.

Dunphy admitted to having two drinks 20 minutes earlier, but he performed poorly on field sobriety tests. And it wasn’t just police who thought he had failed. Dunphy said after one test, “I failed the test.”

Hassard arrested Dunphy, charging him with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants and reported that his blood alcohol content registered 0.14 percent, more than the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Beaulieu went to look at the vehicle and reported that it appeared that Dunphy had turned around and tried unsuccessfully to plow over several trees in his effort to return to the road.

Hassard reported that he happened upon the accident by chance, returning on the Finson Road from a call in the Capehart area.

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Sent to the Bounty Taverne on Main Street in Bangor for a report of a fight, police found a bouncer holding down Larry Gordon, 18, of Brewer in the parking lot.

It had been a one-sided fight, according to a man who approached Officer James Hassard to say that he was the victim, according to the police report. The man told Hassard that Gordon saw him in the parking lot and claimed to know him. Gordon then indicated that he wanted to fight the other man.

The man said Gordon began punching him, striking him about 10 times, without provocation and that he kept his hands in his pockets while this was going on. The man said he never retaliated.

Hassard noted that the man had cuts and marks on his face and head and the man’s friend reported that only Gordon threw punches. A records check uncovered that Gordon was wanted on a warrant for failure to pay a fine for an operating-after-suspension conviction and he was arrested. Hassard charged him with assault.

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It was deja vu for a Bangor police officer who arrested 31-year-old Marc Simpson on a theft charge twice in two days.

Officer George Spencer was sent to the Rite Aid pharmacy on Union Street about 1:30 p.m. Sunday when an employee reported that Simpson had hidden a cordless phone in his jacket and left the store without paying for it.

Spencer arrested Simpson on a theft charge and reported recognizing him from two days earlier when he had arrested Simpson outside the Ames Department Store on Union Street. Simpson had been charged with theft, although the police report indicated he had taken nearly $250 in merchandise from the store.

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A Bangor woman reported that Stanley Pinkham, 53, violated a protection order she had against him when he called her Friday and tried to talk her out of testifying against him.

The woman told Officer Butch Moor that Pinkham also threatened her, telling her, “I should have beaten your head in while I had the chance.” The woman reported that Pinkham is also on federal probation.

Authorities located Pinkham later and arrested him, although he claimed he had had no contact with the woman and that he had been in York County all day.

Compiled by NEWS reporter

Doug Kesseli