Police charge Bangor man with OUI

Bangor police arrested a 43-year-old man on a drunken driving charge and this week also linked him to the theft of hundreds of dollars from the vending machine company where he once worked.

Steven A. Gallant of Bangor faces a charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, although not for theft, as his former employer declined to pursue the theft case against Gallant, according to police.

Gallant was the driver of a sports utility vehicle that was seen being driven erratically. A motorist reported to police that she saw the vehicle weaving across the lane as it was headed toward Bangor from Bucksport late Sunday night. Bangor police officers arrived at Gallant’s Sidney Street home ahead of Gallant and approached him as he got out of the Jeep.

Gallant was unsteady on his feet, noted Officer Steve Jordan. The unsteadiness continued during field sobriety tests, and Gallant admitted to drinking two beers and to taking Prozac earlier.

Jordan arrested Gallant and while searching the truck, found money inside a canvas bag from Automatic Vending and Games. Police later counted $378 in $1 bills, two quarters and eight dimes and noted that the bills were arranged in a half dozen piles of 32 to 41 bills.

At the Penobscot County Jail, police confiscated three keys and more money from Gallant, specifically $68 in single dollar bills, $31.25 in quarters and 65 cents in dimes and nickels.

Gallant initially told police that the money they found was his poker game earnings, as well as change he intended to use to get his wife’s Jeep washed. Monday morning, however, Gallant confessed to the owner of Automatic Vending that he had taken the money from a vending machine at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. The general manager of the vending company told Officer Jeff Small that one of the keys found on Gallant was a master key, while another went to a machine at the U.S. Naval facility in Winter Harbor and the third to a machine at Darling’s Ford dealership.

Vending company owner Charles “Chip” Hutchins told Small that he didn’t intend on pursuing charges against Gallant, according to the police report. Gallant finished working for the vending company in May and is currently unemployed, according to the police report.

Told she was under arrest for violating her bail by drinking alcohol early Tuesday morning, a 32-year-old woman downed the last of her wine for good measure and was taken into custody, according to police.

Terri Lynn Nichols of Bangor was charged with violation of conditions of release after police found her at a Union Street residence shortly after midnight Tuesday.

“She said that if she was going to get arrested, she might as well make it worth it,” said Officer Steve Jordan, who had located Nichols in order to give her paperwork from her arrest earlier this month.

Let inside apartment No. 1 at 204 Union St., police found Nichols asleep. Jordan said that the man who had let them in and directed police to Nichols had a difficult time rousing Nichols. Eventually, with help from police, she did wake up.

Nichols was lethargic and appeared to be intoxicated, Jordan noted. She acknowledged that she knew she was prohibited from drinking, but said that she had had only a small amount and that she didn’t even like wine, Jordan said.

Police found the large plastic cup that Nichols had been drinking from and there was some wine still in it. Learning that she was under arrest for drinking, she finished it off.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli