Bangor man charged with drunken driving

A Bangor man was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants and leaving the scene of an accident after he struck a large tree at the corner of Warwick and Field streets in Bangor and left the grill of his truck beside the tree, officials said.

Police found the 1990 Toyota pickup on the lawn on Fowler Street with its right front tire off its rim, after it had left a trail of tree limbs and truck parts from the scene of the accident, Bangor police Officer Brad Hanson said. When police pulled in behind the truck, the driver attempted to back up and nearly struck a police cruiser. The driver of the truck, later identified as Jeffrey Geaghan, 31, continued his attempts to move the vehicle, but the wheels only spun until they created smoke.

Geaghan fell to the ground when asked by police to get out of the truck and could not tell police what day or month it was. While sitting 10 feet away from the vehicle, he asked police where his truck was, Hanson said. Because Geaghan had suffered a minor head injury in the accident, police did not have him attempt to complete field sobriety tests, but believed that he had been drinking based on an allegedly strong smell of intoxicating beverages coming from him, severely slurred speech and because he had urinated in his pants.

An Intoxilizer test found Geaghan’s blood alcohol level to be nearly three times the legal limit.

For the second time in four days a Bangor man was arrested for pulling a fire box alarm falsely.

Kent Siegfriedt, 50, had already been arrested and charged with pulling a fire box alarm on State Street Thursday when police found him sitting under an alarm box that had just been activated at 21 Main St. on Sunday, Bangor police Officer Jason McAmbley said.

Siegfriedt told officials he had recently been assaulted by three men and had pulled the alarm to get an ambulance, McAmbley said. Siegfriedt said he didn’t want to talk about the assault or file a report because it was “a court matter” and he would be filing a lawsuit against his attackers.

He was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for evaluation and though he complained of pain, he was not injured, McAmbley said. When told that he was under arrest on the charge of filing a false public alarm or report, Siegfriedt stated that he hadn’t pulled the alarm, then stated that pulling an alarm was a method of getting an ambulance in Massachusetts. Siegfriedt, who was also charged with violation of conditions of release, was taken to Penobscot County Jail without bail and will appear in 3rd District Court in Bangor today.

Police were still investigating a car burglary Sunday after a Portland woman claimed that someone had gone through her vehicle Friday night and taken a baby stroller from her 1994 Ford Escort while it was parked on Broadway, Bangor police Officer James Buckley said. Nothing, besides the stroller valued at $100, was taken from the car.

A Bangor man learned Saturday to be careful about who he assumes his friends are when a passenger got out of a red Chevy Blazer and attacked his car with a baseball bat, police said.

The man’s car had been parked on Cumberland Street when he noticed a truck that resembled the vehicle of a friend, Bangor police Officer Chad Foley said. A passenger got out of the truck and yelled for him while brandishing a baseball bat. The Bangor man left the area, but the bat-wielding man instead focused his attentions on the Bangor man’s car, breaking the car’s windshield and other parts. Damage was estimated at $500. Police were still investigating the incident and were trying to identify the unknown attacker Sunday.

On Sunday, police were still investigating evidence gathered from an act of vandalism to a car at a Darling’s car dealership on Hogan Road.

Sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning, a vandal smashed a passenger window on a 1996 Honda Civic and then attempted to pry open the trunk, Bangor police Officer James Buckley said. Employees told police that a similar act had occurred previously in the week when someone had tried to pry their way into another car. The vandal left behind a piece of evidence that officials did not want to identify.

Employees at the Fairfield Inn, 300 Odlin Road, called police Friday morning after they noticed that the change box for a vending machine had been cut and recently pried out of the machine, Bangor officials said.

It was unknown how much money had been inside the change box, but damage was estimated at $500, Bangor police Officer Jim Carr said.

A Hampden woman told police she was afraid for the safety of her family after a car burglar stole pictures of her and her family, among other items, during a car burglary in the parking lot of Wal-Mart on Friday, Bangor officials said.

The woman had locked the doors to her 1994 Chevy Tahoe but had left the windows cracked with a portable compact disc player in clear view on the dashboard, Bangor police Officer Michael Kenny said. The burglar reached into the car, unlocked it and took the disc player, six to seven compact discs, 80 pills of the woman’s migraine medicine known as Fioricet and numerous photos of the woman and her children on vacation in New Hampshire. The woman said she was worried the photos would end up on the Internet because she and her children were in their bathing suits. Police valued the missing items at $159.

Police and Wal-Mart security members were still investigating the incident and viewing parking lot security tapes Sunday.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton