Man pulls into driveway of police officer Driver operating without license

A Belfast driver picked the wrong driveway to pull into after noticing he was being followed by a Hampden patrol officer Friday night.

Before the night ended, Christopher Lawrence, 19, had been arrested on two charges and summoned in connection with a third. Lawrence was released on bail shortly after his arrival at Penobscot County Jail in Bangor. He was ordered to make an initial court appearance in Bangor District Court on Dec. 7.

Officer J.D. Burke of the Hampden Police Department said the incident began while he was on patrol. He saw a vehicle traveling on Route 202 with expired registration stickers. He followed it as it headed from Route 202 to Cold- brook Road and planned to pull the driver over after he got beyond a residential area. Before that could happen, however, the driver abruptly pulled into a driveway in what Burke suspected was an attempt to lose him.

Burke continued past that driveway – his own, ironically – and turned into a driveway just beyond it to monitor the situation.

Upon arriving at Burke’s home, the driver knocked on the door and was greeted by the patrol officer’s fiancee. Lawrence asked to use the telephone, claiming he needed to call his mother because his car was acting up, but the woman declined and called the police station.

Lawrence then knocked on the door of Burke’s neighbors, who occupy an apartment above a garage on the same property. He again asked to use the telephone. While that was happening, Burke drove over to investigate.

After listening to Lawrence’s account of what brought him to the Coldbrook Road residences, Burke offered to allow the motorist use of a cell phone in his police cruiser. Burke said he wanted to try to determine what the driver was up to. After Lawrence took Burke up on his offer, Burke detected the odor of alcohol on Lawrence’s breath. A search of Lawrence’s car turned up a bottle of wine, which resulted in a summons for violating the state’s legal drinking age, which is 21.

When Burke checked on the status of Lawrence’s driver’s license, he learned that Lawrence’s license was under suspension. He also learned that Lawrence was wanted on a warrant for failure to pay fishing fines.

Though they work out of a facility a county away, dispatchers from the Penobscot Regional Communications Center on Hammond Street in Bangor played a significant role in the recent rescue of a 34-year-old woman who slipped into the frigid waters of Compass Harbor in Bar Harbor.

According to Cliff Wells, the dispatch center director, state police relayed a 911 call made from a cell phone to the county’s dispatch center about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 29. State police advised dispatcher Jaeme Ahern, who fielded the call, that they believed there was a medical emergency under way but were unable to determine the location of the caller.

Ahern began talking with the woman, who was having difficulty speaking. She tried to calm her in an attempt to pinpoint her location so rescuers could be sent, Wells said. The cellular connection, however, was lost after three minutes. The dispatcher called the state police back to get the woman’s cell phone number and resumed discussion.

After speaking with the woman for a few more minutes, Wells said, Ahern learned that she had fallen on rocks and then into the waters off the coast of Bar Harbor. After further prompting from Ahern, the woman finally provided her name and address and, most importantly, her location. With that information in hand, fellow dispatcher Betty Butler called the state police, who notified the Maine Warden Service and connected Butler to the Bar Harbor police. The woman was pulled from the water and taken to a hospital, where she was admitted for observation. Even though she had been in the water nearly 45 minutes, she apparently did not suffer hypothermia.

Compiled by NEWS reporter Dawn Gagnon.