Investigators probe Orrington thefts

Investigators are forwarding evidence obtained from a burglary at TJ’s market in Orrington earlier this week to the state forensics laboratory and are reviewing hours of video surveillance tapes.

Authorities also held a checkpoint stop of traffic on the Brewer Lake Road from midnight to 4 a.m. Tuesday, roughly the time frame the burglary occurred one day earlier, in the hopes of obtaining more information about who burglarized the convenience store.

They are also asking anyone who may have seen something, such as cars parked in the area, to contact them at 1-800-696-5403 or 947-4585.

Detective William Flagg of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that the burglar or burglars broke in through the front door and took a large amount of cigarettes as well as food items. The value of the stolen items wasn’t released.

Veazie police arrested a Milford man after he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend during a dispute over custody of their dog Wednesday afternoon.

Glenn Mannisto, 44, dropped off the mixed-breed dog at his former girlfriend’s home at Lot 32 of Greystone Trailer Park for visitation. Mannisto then picked up the woman’s 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and took her with him shopping for parts for his skidder, reported Veazie police Cpl. John Dall.

When Mannisto returned, his former girlfriend was reluctant to give back their dog, and, kneeling down she held the dog firmly in her arms. Mannisto tried to get the dog’s collar and in the process tried to loosen the woman’s grip on the dog, Dall said.

In response, his former girlfriend bit him on the hand, Dall said, prompting Mannisto to push her to the ground, leaving the woman with cuts on her knees and elbows.

Mannisto didn’t mention grabbing the woman’s wrist, Dall said, but the woman showed police the grease marks Mannisto had left behind.

Mannisto was charged with domestic assault.

A Veazie couple remained behind bars Wednesday night after their midmorning arrest by police who said the couple was intoxicated and in violation of their probation orders.

In addition to violation of probation, Marilyn Barrett, 43, was charged with assaulting Darrell Hamilton, who told Veazie police Detective Andrew Whitehouse that she had struck him in the face with a spatula. Hamilton had a cut on his mouth, Whitehouse said.

Barrett denied hitting Hamilton with the spatula but admitted she may have slapped him on the back, police said.

Called to the pair’s home at 10 Sunset Drive for a report of two people arguing loudly, Whitehouse found the couple inside, along with an almost overpowering smell of alcohol. Whitehouse said he knew that both were out on probation and prohibited from possessing or drinking alcohol. Inside the house and inside a car, Whitehouse found five bottles of vodka, some of them still containing the liquor.

Both denied drinking at all that morning. But an Intoxilyzer test registered high blood alcohol contents for each of them, despite it being 10:30 in the morning.

Barrett registered 0.19 percent while Hamilton registered 0.28 percent, both well above the 0.08 percent level that the state considers a person too impaired to drive a motor vehicle.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli