Bangor man held on drug charges

A man accused of threatening his girlfriend and dealing in drugs struggled with Bangor police early Sunday, dropping 15 feet from a set of outdoor stairs off Elm Street and forcing the officers to use pepper spray to restrain him.

Joshua Nutt, 27, of Bangor faces a range of charges after the incident, which began just before 4 a.m. when Nutt’s 25-year-old girlfriend called police.

She said she had told Nutt he couldn’t leave her Olive Street apartment because it wasn’t safe for him to drive after he allegedly consumed narcotics at his apartment and alcohol at an area bar, Officer Shawn Green said.

Nutt allegedly shoved the woman, raising his fist in a threatening manner when she told him she was going to call police. Nutt then broke out a storm window before saying that he or someone else would kill the woman if she talked to the police.

Nutt then climbed through the window onto a porch roof and jumped to the ground below, Green said.

Bangor police Officers James Hassard and Robert Angelo spotted the Saturn sedan that the woman said Nutt was driving and followed it to Nutt’s apartment building on Grove Street, Angelo said. Police followed Nutt up a flight of outdoor wooden stairs to the door to his second-floor apartment and grabbed him as he attempted to open the locked door.

After a struggle on the second-floor landing, “Nutt managed to throw himself over the railing, but Officer Hassard and I were holding onto him, preventing him from falling,” Angelo said. Nutt’s shirt tore under the grasp of the two officers and he fell 15 feet and began running.

Angelo eventually cornered Nutt in the fenced-in back yard of a home on Elm Street and used pepper spray when he refused police orders to lie down, Angelo said.

Police retrieved a 73.8-gram bag of marijuana and a jacket containing 46.3 grams of cocaine that Nutt allegedly threw aside as he was being chased. Police also found a bottle of OxyContin pills in a pocket of Nutt’s pants and $870 cash.

The woman was taken to a new location after expressing concerns for her safety in light of Nutt’s alleged threats, Green said.

Nutt was being held at Penobscot County Jail on $10,040 cash bail Sunday night and will appear in 3rd District Court today. He is charged with felony trafficking of Schedule W drugs, as well as furnishing Schedule Z drugs, possession of Schedule W drugs, domestic assault, criminal mischief, criminal threatening, and refusing to submit to detention or arrest.

A 12-year-old boy suffered head injuries when he was struck by a pickup truck while walking his bicycle across Ohio Street on Saturday morning.

Police said Jeffrey Igoe, 41, of Brewer was driving a white 1997 GMC pickup south on Ohio Street when he first noticed the boy, later identified as Justin Betts, walking alongside the road ahead, Igoe told Bangor police Officer Douglas Moore.

Igoe was briefly distracted, then saw the boy walking the bike across Ohio Street at the intersection with George Street, Moore said. Betts was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor by a Bangor Fire Department ambulance and was treated for a concussion and released.

Four people avoided serious injury when their cars collided on Route 202 in Hampden on Friday evening.

Kyle Flannery, 18, of Searsport was driving his maroon 1997 Dodge sedan north on Route 202 when he failed to stop for a red light and tried to make a left turn onto Coldbrook Road, Hampden police Officer Scott Jakins said. Flannery’s car collided with a southbound white 1995 Chrysler sedan driven by Stephen Skratt, 71, of Hampden.

Patricia Skratt, 69, of Hampden complained of abdominal pain but was not seriously injured, officials said. Jennifer Lambeth, 18, had been riding with Flannery and was not injured. Damage to Skratt’s car was estimated at $6,000 and to Flannery’s car $2,500.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton