Man’s probation too long, court says

PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the probationary sentence of a Parkman man was twice as long as the law allows.

Theodore Briggs, 48, was sentenced in October 2002 to 364 days in jail with all but five months suspended after he was found guilty of Class D terrorizing and Class D criminal threatening by a Piscataquis County Superior Court jury. In the same trial, he was found not guilty of domestic assault.

Justice Joseph Jabar earlier also sentenced Briggs, who was arrested at his Lander Road home in December 2000 in a suspected domestic dispute, to two years of probation with conditions that included completion of a batterers’ intervention program.

In writing for the court, Justice Robert Clifford stated that a two-year period of probation exceeded the maximum possible probationary period for a Class D offense in the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime involved domestic violence.

Parkman, according to the decision, should be sentenced to one year of probation. The court upheld the remainder of the sentence.

The case was remanded to Piscataquis County Court for resentencing.