Man faces charges after fight with officers

A Bangor man faces several charges, including assault on a police officer, after he began to fight with authorities who were trying to get him to leave a Bangor nightclub early Thursday morning.

Nicholas Tilden, 23, also was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to submit to an arrest or detention after the incident at Barnaby’s on the Odlin Road.

Officer Tim Cotton and Lt. David Kane were asked to remove the 6-foot-2-inch Tilden about 1 a.m. after it was reported he had threatened to punch several people and was making suggestive remarks. Tilden held a beer in his left hand and clenched his right in a fist as police asked him to relinquish the beer and leave, according to the police reports.

Tilden refused. Concerned that the man would strike, Cotton grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to push him to the door. Both men ended up on the floor, with Tilden on top of Cotton throwing punches at the officer, landing three to five blows to the officer’s torso and another to the face.

As Tilden was being pulled off Cotton, the officer was struck in the head by another man, whom Cotton grabbed and thrust out the door. Outside, the man was apparently surprised to find that Cotton, in uniform, was a police officer. The second man apologized.

Cotton had more pressing matters, however, and returned to the bar where several people helped restrain Tilden.

As Tilden was being searched and placed into the cruiser, his girlfriend tried to calm him as she had done inside the bar.

Tilden had a Massachusetts identification card listing him as having lived in Haverhill.

Authorities are awaiting the results of a blood-alcohol test to determine whether to press charges against a Bradley man involved in an accident on Interstate 95 earlier this week.

Ryan Beck, 25, was found by police inside Young’s Market, on Ohio and Court streets, Monday night. His face was covered in blood, his heavily damaged car was outside the store, far from where it had hit a guardrail on the interstate.

Beck told Bangor police Officer Dan Herrick he didn’t know what had happened, but admitted to having four or five beers, according to the police report. Unsteady on his feet, Beck tried to walk to his car – in an apparent attempt to leave – as he was being escorted to an ambulance.

A state trooper investigating the accident expressed surprise that the car had gotten as far as it had considering the heavy damage it received.

Trooper Matt Grant said skid marks and scrapes on the southbound lane near the Broadway onramp indicated that Beck lost control of the car coming around a curve and struck the guardrail and then spun out. The dash and steering wheel airbags were deployed, according to police.

A motorist told police that Beck continued south with one of the car’s tires flat, eventually exiting onto Union Street where he headed back toward the northbound lane of the interstate, but drove up onto Ohio Street instead.

Beck drove along Ohio Street and onto Hammond Street, ignoring red lights as he went, according to the report. He turned onto Court Street where the motorist following him thought Beck was going to stop; instead he continued down the street.

According to police reports, the left side of the car was heavily damaged, the left front tire had rolled off the rim, the steering wheel had collapsed and the windshield was shattered.

“I was amazed he was able to drive it away,” noted Grant who also said that Beck was fortunate that he hadn’t been injured more severely and that others weren’t hurt.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli