Police charge man with assaulting wife

A 41-year-old Greenbush woman told Old Town police she had been assaulted by her husband during an argument and that she feared he’d return to their home and use his firearms against her.

During the fight on North Main Street in Old Town, the woman struck her head on the pavement. On the ground thrashing about, she managed to get back up, then husband Benjamin Young, 41, fled, she told Officer Seth Burnes. The incident happened after the woman came to pick Young up on North Main Street shortly after 9 p.m.

Both spoke to Burnes at the police station, where the officer noted that there was some redness on the woman’s face and the back of her neck.

Young disputed his wife’s claims, agreeing that they had argued but asserting that his wife initiated the physical contact by kicking him twice in the genital area. He responded by forcing her to the ground and walking away.

Young said he didn’t know what caused his wife’s injuries but suggested she may have struck her head on a nearby parked car after he pushed her down. Burnes arrested Young, charging him with assault.

Authorities took four firearms from Young’s Greenbush home and put them into safekeeping after his wife expressed concern that he might return to the home and use them against her, according to the police report.

Myron Ross Garceau, 39, of Old Town was charged with two counts of assault this week after his former girlfriend reported he punched her and later accosted her, ripping off two necklaces she was wearing.

The incidents occurred Saturday, March 9, but weren’t reported until Wednesday morning, four days later, because the woman said she feared reporting it would escalate the situation. But then, the woman told Officer Chris Hashey, Garceau tried to contact her and showed up at her home Tuesday night and tried to enter.

The woman said the incident began while she and a male friend were at Number Ten North Main Street, a bar, on Saturday night. Garceau came up behind her and punched her in the right cheek. A bouncer threw him out of the bar, but later Garceau approached them as the two were walking to their car.

Garceau struck her right shoulder and ripped the necklaces off her, she told police.

Hashey met up with Garceau behind Wadleigh’s Market on Stillwater Avenue and the man admitted things may have gotten out of hand. He said he was “running his mouth” after seeing his former girlfriend with this other man, although he wasn’t sure what happened next. He wasn’t absolutely sure, but he didn’t think he had struck her, telling Hashey that he was so upset that night that had he struck her, his former girlfriend would have needed an ambulance.

Garceau also claimed he didn’t start the fight later that night, that it was the other man who began pushing him while his former girlfriend tried to kick him.

The former girlfriend’s friend confirmed the woman’s claim about the two incidents and also told Hashey that Garceau started the physical contact because he does not like to get into altercations.

A Holden man stopped for a traffic infraction late Wednesday night in Brewer was arrested and charged with drunken driving.

According to police, Roger Pelletier, 47, turned left from Chamberlain Street onto Wilson Street where only right turns are permitted. This was witnessed by Officer Anthony Pinette, who stopped Pelletier’s SUV.

Pinette could smell alcohol coming from inside the vehicle and noted that Pelletier’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot, according to the reports. The motorist admitted to drinking two beers, the last one at 8 p.m., three hours earlier. He also admitted to feeling at least some effects of the alcohol and failed field sobriety tests, police said.

An Intoxilyzer test registered Pelletier’s blood-alcohol content at 0.13 percent, or more than 11/2 times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Stephenson Keene, 28, was wanted on a warrant when Brewer police stopped him early Thursday morning and subsequently found marijuana on him.

Keene didn’t stop for a blinking red light on North Main Street about 1:30 a.m., so Officer Rich Smith stopped him.

A license check revealed that Keene was a wanted man for failing to appear in court in Piscataquis County on a criminal mischief complaint. Smith arrested Keene and while searching him found a small bag of marijuana in his shirt pocket and a marijuana cigarette stored in a pack of cigarettes. He was summoned for possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli