7 police forces break up Orono party, arrest four

A late-night party that included live bands and movies displayed on a barn wall in Orono on Saturday drew hundreds of people and required police from at least seven agencies to break up after authorities were called in to quiet it down.

It took police about 90 minutes to disperse the crowd that included some people who dumped beer on the officers or threw beer cans at them, according to reports. Few officers, if any, were left dry, and four people were arrested.

Weeks earlier a similar party, minus the two live bands, had been held at the same brick apartment building near the intersection of Bennoch Road and Godfrey Boulevard across from the cemetery. Orono police Sgt. Gary Duquette said police monitored the earlier party held on the last weekend of April but fielded no complaints and so there was no police involvement.

But this past weekend, the two live bands prompted complaints from residents on Stillwater Avenue. Orono police Officers Scott Wilcox and Richard Bryant, along with officers from Veazie and Old Town, went to break up the party about 1:30 a.m. Police estimated that 400 people were in attendance.

The people at the party refused to leave and the bands played on, according to police. One man ran toward Wilcox, doused him with beer and disappeared into the crowd. Wilcox had a beer dumped down his back, Duquette said Monday.

The police officers then requested all available police officers to assist, which brought officers from Bangor and Hampden as well as state troopers and deputies from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.

Colin Hopper, 21, of Belfast was arrested and charged with failure to disperse, as was Oliver Miller, 22, of Glenburn. Old Town police Officer Christopher Hashey reported that while assisting in the arrest of Hopper, a woman tried to prevent police from arresting him, grabbing Wilcox and trying to pull him away.

Hashey, in turn, grabbed Angela Pooler, 23, of Orono, who struggled with the Old Town officer, some of it taking place with both of them on the ground. Pooler faces charges of obstructing government administration and refusal to submit to arrest or detention.

According to police, another woman tried to intervene in the arrest, putting up a struggle against two state troopers. Iris Bell-Smith, 26, faces charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration and refusing to submit to arrest or detention.

Orono police charged a 32-year-old woman with domestic assault after a verbal argument with a boyfriend inside a moving car turned into a physical altercation late Wednesday night.

According to police, the boyfriend suffered cuts on his forehead, bite marks, scrapes to his right wrist and chest from where girlfriend Marvet Swett had stabbed him with keys on her key ring. Officer Sam Blalack also reported that there was a hole in the man’s shirt, apparently made with the keys.

The 27-year-old boyfriend said he tried to fend off Swett’s attack while driving down Park Street. Swett was arrested after police were called to their Founders Place residence about 11:30 p.m. by the boyfriend who had been locked outside.

The incident began after Swett returned from the hospital after surgery and insisted they go to Bangor to get an unspecified prescription, Blalack said. Her boyfriend of 18 months wanted her to stay put and rest, but eventually he agreed to drive her to Bangor, with Swett still wearing her hospital garb.

Somewhere between their home and the Interstate 95 on ramp, the man said, Swett grabbed the steering wheel and began the assault. He got out by the I-95 overpass and walked back, while she returned to their home in the car.

Orono police had arrested Swett in early January after her boyfriend reported that she had stabbed him with sewing shears and wielded a knife against him. She was going by the name of Marvet Swaby then.

A fight between two women outside an Orono nightclub early Thursday morning ended with one of them with injuries warranting a visit to a hospital and the other in custody.

Orono police charged Carolyn Fotiu, 22, with assault after finding her at her residence on Main Street North. Fotiu had confronted a 22-year-old woman inside the Ushuaia club on Park Street and about 1:30 a.m. squared off against her outside the closed nightclub.

There, Fotiu repeatedly struck the other woman, whose head and left eye were swollen and her lower lip cut after the beating, reported Officer Sam Blalack. She was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center and Blalack found Fotiu at her apartment. Alcohol appears to have been a factor.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli