Pair stopped for speeding arrested for fighting police

WATERVILLE – A German or Austrian couple stopped for speeding late Thursday afternoon were arrested after police said they became combative and fought with officers alongside Interstate 95.

Stefan Ciobanu, 54, was released from the Kennebec County Jail on $500 cash bail Thursday night, while his wife, Magalena Ciobanu, 53, remained in jail with bail set at $1,200 cash. She faced the more serious charges, including two counts of assault on a police officer.

The couple, whose passports listed them as residents of Germany but whose New York City rental car paperwork listed them as residents of Seaforth, Austria, both face charges of resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. The wife faces another charge of hindering apprehension and one for failure to submit to arrest.

Trooper Diane Vance said she was assisting a motorist when a dispatcher reported a speeding car heading north from Augusta. The car passed Vance at a high speed and it took her seven miles to catch up to the rental car. Vance clocked the car at 110 mph and reported that it had been weaving in and out of traffic.

After stopping the car before a construction zone near mile marker 122, Vance decided to give the couple a break and not to charge Ciobanu with criminal speeding, dropping it down to a civil speeding infraction, 94 mph in a 65 mph zone. Things reportedly went downhill from there, however.

Ciobanu repeatedly refused to sign the summons, Vance said, so she arrested him. But while taking him into custody, he struggled and his wife began yelling and getting in her face, Vance said.

The trooper called for backup, and as the first of a half-dozen officers from the state police, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department and the Waterville Police Department arrived, the couple became more combative.

Eventually, everyone was wrestling in the grass along the interstate trying to get control of the Austrian couple, Vance said.

Vance said she was assaulted by Magalena Ciobanu near the highway as well as at the Thayer Unit of MaineGeneral Hospital, where Ciobanu had been taken after complaining of pain. After hospital staff cleared Ciobanu to be taken to jail, Ciobanu assaulted Vance again, the trooper said.