Bogus credit card purchases lead to charges

A Bangor man and a Pennsylvania woman were arrested in Bangor this week in connection with the illegal credit-card purchases of $1,600 worth of Bangor Mall gift certificates.

The investigation also netted police a pickup truck stolen out of Pennsylvania and a second woman who was wanted on a warrant.

Samantha Cormier, 21, whose license listed her as a Lancaster, Pa., resident, faces four counts of theft by deception, four counts of misuse of credit identification and violation of conditions of release after her arrest Thursday. James Larbi, 25, of 15 Bald Mountain Drive in Bangor, was charged with unauthorized use of property and two counts of theft by deception.

Amy Ellis, 20, also of 15 Bald Mountain Drive was arrested on a warrant issued for failure to pay a fine for an assault conviction.

The gift certificates were purchased over a three-day period and were made in amounts of $50 to $100 with as many as eight being bought at once.

An employee of the Bangor Mall had called to report that between Jan. 19 and 21, a woman claiming to be Mary Smith called and made the four purchases by telephone. On two occasions the woman picking them up was identified as Smith’s niece Samantha, although Bangor police Officer Shawn Green concluded in his investigation that Smith and the niece were both Cormier. On the other two purchases, Larbi picked up the gift certificates, according to Green’s report.

On Jan. 24, Cormier tried a fifth time to purchase gift certificates, but was declined. The mall employee managed to get Cormier to give her the phone number on the back of the credit card and calling the number learned that the card had been stolen in California.

Larbi showed up to pick up the gift certificates with two women and when he learned that the purchase had been declined, they left the mall. A store security officer managed to get the license plate of the car the two women left in and reported that Larbi had headed to a pickup truck that police later learned had been a rental vehicle that was two weeks overdue.

Green reported that Ellis had been one of the people who had been present when purchases were made with the gift certificates and he went to Ellis’ Bald Mountain Drive residence. Outside the home he found the Ford Ranger pickup truck that the Lower Swatara Police Department in Pennsylvania had reported stolen. Inside he found four people, including Ellis, Cormier and Larbi.

Two days after he was arrested for breaking into a residence and assaulting a man, an 18-year-old Veazie man was charged Friday with violating his bail conditions after it was reported he made a half dozen phone calls to the residence in less than three hours.

Because Phillip Lord was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge, his bail violation charge Friday is also a felony, reported Veazie police Officer Andrew Whitehouse.

Lord was charged with assault and burglary after it was reported he pushed his way into a residence at Silver’s Trailer Park where his 16-year-old girlfriend had been staying. Banned from the trailer park, Lord reportedly pushed his way into the home and started a fight with one of the men inside, who apparently earlier had told Lord he needed to treat his girlfriend better.

Lord punched the other man and struggled with the man, putting him in a chokehold in the process, Whitehouse reported.

Lord fled before police arrived, but Whitehouse located him walking on Chase Road about half an hour after the incident.

As part of his release from jail, Lord was to have no contact with the owner of the residence at Silver’s Trailer Park that he had forced his way into Wednesday. Whitehouse said that he was following up on his investigation and learned from the owner of the trailer that Lord had called him six times looking for his girlfriend between 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Friday. Whitehouse went to Lord’s home on State Street and arrested him.

Bangor police charged a 41-year-old man with criminal threatening and disorderly conduct after incidents at two Bangor hospitals Wednesday night.

Policed went to Eastern Maine Medical Center first, at about 8:40 p.m. where an emergency room doctor reported that he had been treating Edward Myshrall, of 52 Market St., but that Myshrall didn’t like what the doctor had to tell him. Myshrall told the doctor to step outside with him where he would beat him up, according to the police report. As he was leaving, Myshrall told the doctor that he hoped someone in the doctor’s family died.

Bangor police Officer Edward A. Mercier met up with Myshrall at St. Joseph Hospital where he had also sought treatment. The man would only admit to asking the doctor to step outside. He denied threatening the doctor or his family, saying that he told the doctor he wished the doctor’s family would feel the same pain he was feeling.

Mercier summoned Myshrall, charging him with criminal threatening and then issued him a disorderly conduct warning after Myshrall became disruptive to the other patients and staff at the hospital.

Mercier was called back to St. Joseph about 11 p.m. where security told the officer that the hospital staff wanted Myshrall removed because of his behavior. Myshrall was arrested and admitted that he had grabbed his groin in front of a nurse, according to the police report.

A St. Joseph Hospital nurse said that Myshrall became disruptive and flailed his arms while she was trying to take his blood pressure. He didn’t take the news well that the doctor wasn’t going to prescribe him pain medication and Myshrall began yelling, according to the report.

“I’m putting this hospital on the endangered list,” he reportedly said.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli