BANGOR – After a lengthy hearing filled with starts, stops and sudden recesses, a federal judge Wednesday decided David Archer of Bangor should remain in jail pending sentencing.

A day earlier, Archer, 25, had changed his plea to guilty on two counts of bank fraud in connection with a widespread scheme last summer that involved cashing counterfeit checks at convenience stores in a four-county area.

Archer apparently set off the complicated legal scurrying Wednesday afternoon, arguing through his attorney that he was told by federal officials he could remain out of jail and on electronic monitoring pending sentencing.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal gave Archer the chance to withdraw the guilty plea he had made the day before.

Singal termed it “a concern” that Archer seemed to refer to an agreement that was never presented in court.

Withdrawing his guilty plea would have reinstated a presumption of innocence for Archer and might have paved the way to continued monitoring outside of jail.

However, the government, represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Love, asked the judge to revoke Archer’s bail and the conditions attached to it because of an alleged assault that occurred the night of Dec. 17.

That night, Archer reportedly assaulted his brother’s girlfriend in an apartment on Grove Street. Bangor police were called and Archer was charged.

Terming Archer a risk of flight and a danger to the community, federal probation supervisor Marjorie Earle testified Wednesday that the only way Archer could be assured to show up for hearings was through incarceration.

Bangor attorney J. Hillary Billings is representing Archer. He asked on two different occasions for recesses to consult with his client, who didn’t appear to understand the choices the judge was giving him in the matter. Archer’s mother, Robin Goodness, attended the hearing.

His brother, Paul Archer, walked into the courtroom when the hearing was almost over.

Two younger women, summoned as witnesses, sat out in the hall. Robin Goodness later said it was an “insult” to be told to come to court to testify and then to wait 11/2 hours without being called to the witness stand at all.

Archer had been living with his mother in her apartment at 160 Grove St.

He apparently had discovered he could walk to his brother’s adjoining apartment without setting off an alarm connected to his electronic bracelet.

That is where he was found by police, allegedly choking his brother’s girlfriend and banging her head against a wall.

On Wednesday, a deep scratch was visible on Archer’s cheek.

Archer has been in the news recently because of several alleged offenses.

On Sept. 14, police cruisers blocked off Union Street, Third Street and Clinton Street in broad daylight.

Bangor police and members of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and the Northern Maine Violent Crimes Task Force converged and flushed Archer out of an apartment building. He was arrested on a federal warrant and jailed.

Suffering from drug withdrawal, Archer appeared Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk.

At the time, his mother told a reporter her son spent $1,000 a day on a drug habit.

He was evaluated and eventually released on bail with the electronic monitoring condition. He had been attending an intervention program at Acadia Hospital as well as Narcotics Anonymous meetings while on electronic monitoring.

Suffering from Crohn’s disease, a degenerative intestinal ailment, Archer takes prednisone and has a legal subscription for the painkiller OxyContin, his attorney said.

The probation officer said she didn’t believe Acadia Hospital officials knew of his OxyContin prescription.