Palmyra man charged after chase

As he sped along, a Palmyra motorist told his distraught passenger not to worry, that the police cruiser in pursuit behind them would never catch up with them late Thursday night.

But Michael J. Cole, 19, of Palmyra later told police that he had to reconsider his assessment as he realized that he wasn’t putting any distance between him and the cruiser.

At times speeds reached 60 to 70 mph along Hammond Street and side streets, which are posted 25 mph. The brief car chase ended after Cole headed down Webster Avenue North, a dead end street, and Officer Brad Johnston pulled up to the car, the cruiser’s bumper close to the driver’s door, thereby preventing an easy escape for the driver.

Neither Cole nor his 18-year-old passenger had driver’s licenses, just permits, and police charged Cole with eluding a police officer, operating a motor vehicle without a license and speeding 30 mph over the limit.

Cole caught Johnston’s attention about 11:30 p.m. after the officer noticed what appeared to be Cole trying to make a U-turn in the middle of Hammond Street. Cole aborted the U-turn after seeing the police cruiser behind him, but tried the maneuver again after driving down Royal Road. This too he aborted and Johnston reported the car accelerated excessively down Royal.

“Don’t worry, they’re not going to catch us,” Cole told his passenger, almost arrogantly, the woman reported.

With siren sounding and blue lights flashing, Johnston followed the car, which then turned left onto Webster Avenue, failing to stop for the stop sign, according to police.

Inside Cole’s car, the passenger was frantic, later telling police that she was screaming at Cole to slow down and pull over.

A 15-year-old wanted on a warrant for failing to appear in court on a shoplifting charge came into the Bangor police station Friday morning wanting to know when his court date was.

Officer Shawn Green, who had arrested the teen-ager on June 8 on the shoplifting charge, again took the youth into custody, this time on the warrant. While police patted him down, the teen-ager said he wasn’t carrying any weapons, but that he did have a “sleep aid” with him that a friend had given him.

The “sleep aid” turned out to be Trazodone, which is used to treat depression, Green said. Possession of the pill netted the youth another charge, that of possession of a Schedule Z drug.

After a lengthy investigation, a local transient was summoned for burglary and fraud in a case regarding a money order for $530 that was lost at the beginning of the month.

On July 1, a Bangor man reported that a money order and checkbook, last seen on the top of his refrigerator, were missing. The space in which the person for whom the money order was intended had been blank and the money order had been cashed at the Brewer Federal Credit Union by a Robert Gustin.

According to police reports, a surveillance photograph of the man cashing the check was provided by the credit union to police on July 12. On July 16, Deputy Robert Jordan of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and Bangor Officer John Robinson went to Gustin’s Ohio Street residence. Gustin first identified himself as Matthew Lawrence Smith, but admitted to being Robert Gustin. During questioning he first told police that he found the money order on Fourth Street, crumpled and walked on, and cashed it since he considered it “free money.”

Gustin was summoned for burglary and forgery and taken to Penobscot County Jail by Robinson on behalf of his probation officer.

– Compiled by Doug Kesseli and Monique Gibouleau of the NEWS staff