K-9 unit locates suspect in aggravated assault in Orneville

An Orneville man was arrested Friday after a Maine State Police K-9 unit found him in the woods behind his house Friday evening.

Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Allen Emerson said Clifford Harriman, 50, was charged with terrorizing, obstruction of the report of a crime and two counts of aggravated assault.

Emerson said Harriman reportedly hit his wife in the head with a door, dragged his 12-year-old daughter across the yard by her hair, and threatened to burn their house down with his wife inside it.

When Harriman’s wife tried to call police, she said, he destroyed the phone. Harriman then took off when another daughter called police at about 3:30 p.m. from a neighbor’s house.

Emerson said he and Deputy Jamie Kane went to the Lyford Road home, along with Maine State Police Troopers Marc Poulin, Tom Fiske and Barry Meserve, an officer with a K-9. Emerson said Meserve’s dog lost track of Harriman and they left the scene.

At about 6 p.m. witnesses reported seeing Harriman in the woods behind his home, and Trooper Gene Sutton found him in about 15 minutes with the help of his dog.

Emerson said the assaults were considered “aggravated” because of Harriman’s prior offenses.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball

A woman told Bangor police her boyfriend twisted her arm and struck her Friday morning.

At about 4:45 a.m. Officers Chad Foley, Wade Betters and Russell Twaddell went to a Walter Street apartment for a report of a domestic assault in progress.

They arrived to find Joel Rushin, 52, of Bangor, and his 34-year-old girlfriend, who was crying and holding her arm. The girlfriend told Foley she had moved in three days ago, and that the couple had been fighting for the past two days. She said the fights were over housekeeping issues.

Rushin’s girlfriend said it got out of control Friday morning, when Rushin started pushing her around and hitting her. She showed Foley bruises on her arms, at which point Officer Twaddell arrested Rushin for domestic assault and took him to Penobscot County Jail.

Foley said Rushin’s girlfriend started crying, saying she didn’t want him arrested. Foley then explained Maine’s mandatory arrest law. When she calmed down, Rushin’s girlfriend told Foley that Rushin had prevented her from using the phone to call a taxi earlier, and called her names and twisted her arm. She said Rushin said he was trying to make her submit.

Foley said the girlfriend admitted she had been drinking.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball