BANGOR – A 26-year-old Lewiston man was convicted Thursday in Penobscot County Superior Court of five charges related to his attempt to elude a pair of Bangor police officers last summer.

Justice Andrew Mead found Mikol J. Allison guilty of robbery, escape, burglary of a motor vehicle, assault and refusing to submit to arrest in the jury-waived trial. Allison could face up to 20 years in prison on the robbery charge alone, according to Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts. A date for sentencing has not been set.

Allison is currently serving an 18-month sentence at the Maine Correctional Center for drug possession. Last spring, a warrant was issued in Lewiston for Allison when he failed to show up for Androscoggin County Drug Court. The man was in Bangor on Aug. 12 visiting a friend who lived at the Terraces apartments on Hancock Street, when local police received a tip that Allison was in town.

Officers Myron Warner and Paul Colley found him hiding in a bedroom closet of the apartment, but Allison ran from them, out of the building and toward the Penobscot River. Meanwhile, David Melochick, a retired Bangor police sergeant, and his wife, Susan, were turning onto Hancock Street after crossing the Penobscot Bridge.

David Melochick testified that he saw Allison running down the hill from the apartment complex with Colley in pursuit. When the officer slipped and fell in the street, Melochick moved his car to protect him from being struck by other vehicles.

Allison, however, doubled back from the railroad tracks along the riverbank and jumped into the back seat of Melochick’s four-door 2001 Saab. Melochick testified Thursday that he then pulled the key out of the ignition and tossed it under the seat while he grabbed a can of Mace from a door pocket.

In the meantime, Susan Melochick left the passenger’s seat and jumped on top of Allison in the back seat. She hit him on the arm and side while her husband sprayed him with Mace, as Warner and Colley arrived on the scene.

Allison, who took the stand in his own defense, testified that he knew a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He said that when he saw a chance to run from the bedroom in between the two officers, “stupidity took over” and he ran.