Man wanted in Hampden, Bangor assaults still in County jail

HOULTON – A Brewer man wanted in connection with separate assaults in Hampden and Bangor last week remained Monday in Aroostook County Jail unable to make bail.

Jeffrey Simpson, 35, was arrested in connection with drunken driving by Maine State Police about 4:30 p.m. Thursday in Houlton, nearly 31/2 hours after the Hampden incident. He appeared Friday in 2nd District Court in Presque Isle on the OUI charge.

Bail was set at $5,000 surety or $2,500 cash. The high bail was set because of Simpson’s lengthy criminal history, according to Aroostook County District Attorney Neale Adams. Simpson told the court that he had spent 15 years behind bars, Adams said Thursday.

In Penobscot County, Simpson still faces charges of aggravated robbery and assault in connection with a home invasion in Hampden and for assaulting and terrorizing a woman in Bangor. Both incidents occurred Thursday, according to police. No date has been set for his appearance in 3rd District Court in Bangor on those charges.

A passenger in Simpson’s pickup truck also was arrested. Thomas Baker, 22, of Bangor was wanted on a warrant for unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, reported Sgt. Scott Webber of the Hampden Police Department. On Monday, Baker also was being held in Aroostook County Jail.

In Hampden, two women reported waking up on Thursday after Simpson broke into their Main Road North home, displaying a gun and demanding money. He struck one of the women with the gun when she wasn’t moving fast enough, she told Officer Joel Small.

The woman told Small she recognized Simpson as being an acquaintance of a friend, but that she didn’t know his name. She obtained Simpson’s cellphone number from the mutual friend and called Simpson, telling him she was calling the police. He responded by threatening to come back and kill the woman and her 12-year-old son, who also was at home, police said.

Simpson also had demanded money from a Bangor woman who was walking to Second Street Park to get her children shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to police there.

The woman told Officer Brad Johnston that Simpson had pulled up nearby and demanded the $20 he had lent her. When she told him she couldn’t pay him until Thursday, he displayed a silver and black handgun, still in a mesh holster.

She said Simpson didn’t point the gun at her, but that he claimed it was loaded and stated he wasn’t afraid of “taking out” her children.