ELLSWORTH – Jury deliberations in the trial of a Lamoine tow-truck driver accused of trying to take a Surry woman’s car because she didn’t pay a towing bill are expected to resume this morning in Hancock County Superior Court.

Clifton Bradford, 50, is accused of hooking up one of his wreckers to Catherine Petros’ car at her home on Morgan Bay Road last October and threatening to take it if she didn’t pay $67 she owed him. He has been charged with multiple counts of attempted theft for the alleged crime.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about a half-hour Monday afternoon after presiding Justice William Brodrick instructed them on how to interpret the law. Brodrick sent the jurors home around 4:15 p.m. with instructions that they return to the courthouse this morning to continue deliberations. Bradford reportedly left the bill in one of Petros’ other cars after Bradford towed it to a Trenton auto dealer, according to Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich. Petros never saw the bill because she traded in the car at the dealership, Povich has said.

Bradford, who is representing himself, told the jury Monday he did not touch or move Petros’ $18,000 car and had no intention of taking it. He backed up his truck to her car and acted as if he was going to take it because he could not get Petros to come out of her house and talk to him, he said.

“I did that to rattle her cage,” Bradford said.

Bradford said his ploy worked. When she came out to ask what he was doing, he said he was there to collect the $67 she owed him, he said. “Within three minutes, I had a check in my hand,” Bradford said.

Bradford, under questioning by Povich, said he has had to pester Petros before to get her to pay previous bills. He said he did not try to collect the money through small claims court because small claims court is ineffective.

“That’s a joke. I don’t do that,” Bradford said. “I keep being a pain in their ass until I get paid.”

Povich, in his closing remarks, said Petros testified that Bradford had threatened to take the car if she didn’t pay the bill. He said Petros saw Bradford crawl under her car and saw her car move after the cables on Bradford’s wrecker became taut.

“That is not how you collect a debt,” Povich said. “Mr. Bradford had no right to do what he did. He had no right to collect a bill that way.”