Man’s assault on neighbor reported in Bangor

A 25-year-old Bangor man under house arrest was charged with assault Sunday night after it was reported that he went to a neighbor’s apartment and choked his brother’s girlfriend.

In addition to the assault charge, David Archer will likely have repercussions with regard to his probation status, as his probation officer has been alerted to his arrest.

Archer lives at 160 Grove St., Apt. B, with his mother. He made several court appearances earlier this fall after authorities linked him to a widespread counterfeit check-cashing scheme involving thousands of dollars.

Sunday night, the 21-year-old resident of Apt. A called police to report that Archer, her boyfriend’s brother, had assaulted her, apparently in front of her 5-year-old son. The woman said that Archer came to visit her roommate. The woman said that when she later told Archer to leave because she was going to bed, Archer became violent, according to the police report.

Archer allegedly grabbed her by the throat, began choking her and banging her head against the wall, she told Bangor police Officer Russell Twaddell. She said she fought back, and with help from her roommate, she managed to break free from Archer’s grip.

“I had to pull him off her,” the roommate told Twaddell.

The incident was witnessed by the woman’s 5-year-old son, who repeatedly told Twaddell, “David tried to kill my mom.”

When Twaddell went to the next apartment, Archer claimed that it had been his brother’s girlfriend who had flipped out and that she had been choking him. He had fresh scratches on his face, Twaddell reported. Twaddell arrested Archer because he was concerned that another assault would take place, because of Archer’s angry demeanor and because he lives so close to the woman. Twaddell also reported that Archer has been arrested numerous times in the past for assault.

Old Town police arrested a Bangor man on a drunken driving charge early Sunday after stopping him on Interstate 95, heading south in the northbound lane.

It was 4:25 a.m. and freezing rain had made the Interstate extremely slippery and dangerous when Old Town police officers were told to intercept a car headed in the wrong direction on the interstate.

Shortly after heading north from Exit 52, at Route 43, Officer Stephen Boyd reported seeing headlights coming in his direction, on his side of the interstate. He put on his flashing blue lights, which caused the wayward motorist to slow, and then stop, in the passing lane, not far from the Route 16 overpass.

The motorist, Francis X. Mooney, 41, got out of his car and approached Boyd, who asked him what he was doing.

Mooney replied that he was heading to Bangor, then told Boyd he thought he still was in Lincoln.

Boyd reported that Mooney’s eyes were red and glassy and that he could smell alcohol near the man’s face.

Upon further questioning, Mooney admitted that he had had “far too much” to drink.

Boyd had also observed that Mooney was unsteady on his feet. During the one field sobriety test the police had him perform, Mooney had difficulty holding his head up to attempt the exercise. The officers decided that conditions were too dangerous to have him perform any further tests and Mooney was arrested.

Boyd charged him with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants. He was also charged with operating a motor vehicle after license revocation, after it was learned that Mooney’s license had been pulled by the state. Mooney also refused to sign the summons and was charged with that as well.

Shortly before he had left for his home in Alton, 31-year-old Ronald Babb had been warned to “watch out for the Old Town police,” he told an Old Town police sergeant who had stopped him late Saturday afternoon.

It was a combination of erratic driving and speeding that caught the attention of Sgt. Michael Hashey, who reported that the pickup was traveling 49 mph in a 35 mph zone on Gilman Falls Avenue. In addition, the truck was drifting from one side of the road to the other and crossed the centerline on several occasions.

Hashey stopped the pickup truck by College Avenue at about 6 p.m. and reported that Babb was unsteady on his feet. Babb claimed he had had two beers, one at noontime and another about 20 minutes before he had been stopped. However, he later told Hashey that the night before he had polished off more than a case of beer, having stopped drinking at 2 a.m.

Asked to rate his sobriety on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being sober and 10 being very intoxicated, Babb estimated that he was a 11/2, although then amended his statement to say he was a 2.

Hashey suspected he was more intoxicated than that, noting that Babb continued to sway while the officer spoke to him. Babb didn’t complete one field sobriety test, failed another and refused to complete a third test.

Arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, Babb did take an Intoxilyzer test, which registered his blood alcohol content at 0.22 percent, or nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli