Probation violations land criminal back in jail

BANGOR – James Farnham, 24, of Garland had been released from prison for just a month in May when he was arrested again for violating conditions of supervised release.

The driver of a getaway car after a botched 1996 bank robbery in Corinna, and the object of a four-hour standoff last July in Bangor, Farnham got into trouble with federal probation officials after he had served prison time for both offenses and was released April 16, then failed to report that, within days, he had quit one of two jobs at which he worked. He then left the Portland rooming house where he had told probation officials they could reach him if needed.

Farnham, now being held at Penobscot County Jail, appeared for the first part of a detention hearing late last week at U.S. District Court in Bangor. Testifying at the hearing was supervisor Dick Harburger of the U.S. Probation Office and Farnham.

The hearing was continued until today. On Friday, Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk made it clear that she had found compelling reasons last summer to detain Farnham after a July 17, 2000, standoff.

The standoff, for which Farnham served nine months, mostly in a Portland halfway house, occurred when Farnham barricaded himself in an apartment on Bolling Drive in Bangor and refused to come out or to talk with federal agents for four hours. Members of the Bangor Special Response Tactical Team had to break down the door to reach Farnham shortly after noon that day.

Earlier in the day Farnham had failed to show up for a federal court appearance, resulting in an arrest warrant. Kravchuk granted Bangor defense attorney Perry O’Brian’s request to research places where Farnham could stay pending further court action. His grandparents in Levant have housed him before and are “responsible people,” the judge said. Yet they are elderly and have health problems and another grandson to deal with at this point, the judge noted.

The mother of Farnham’s 2-year-old son in Bangor has not been contacted, though Farnham mentioned staying with her as a possibility.

“I haven’t had access to a phone,” Farnham said.

In October 1996, Farnham pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting in an attempted armed robbery of a bank. He was sentenced to three years in prison and served his time. He also was given three years of supervised release.

He was on supervised release at the time of the standoff.

Farnham said he had been living in his car from the middle of May to the time he was arrested last week. Asked why he quit his job at a Big Apple convenience store and why he left the Oak Street Inn in Portland, Farnham said he was trying to “deal with issues” in Bangor and that “everything was up in the air.”

Farnham said he didn’t know he was supposed to report to his probation officer and to submit to urine testing on May 15.

“I didn’t know it. I was supposed to get something in the mail which I never received,” Farnham said May 25.