Traffic stop prompts police call for drug K-9

Old Town police summoned a Cumberland man on drug charges after he allegedly ran a flashing red light early Thursday.

Officer Seth Burnes reported that just after midnight he pulled over a car that he had seen running a red flashing light at the intersection of Center and Main streets. Burnes said there was a smell of marijuana coming from the car. Burnes asked the driver, Daniel Clark, 22, of Cumberland if he had any marijuana.

Burnes said Clark admitted he had recently smoked marijuana in the car, but denied he had any more. Burnes told Clark he would ask Indian Island police Officer Jim Fearon to come to the scene with his drug-sniffing dog.

Clark then told Burnes that he had some marijuana in his backpack, Burnes said. When Fearon arrived with the dog, a small bag of marijuana was indeed found in the backpack. Clark also admitted that he had a pipe in the glove box. He was summoned for possession of a usable amount of marijuana, and sale and use of drug paraphernalia.

An Orono woman was arrested Wednesday night in Bangor after a traffic accident.

Bangor police Officer James Dearing reported that at about 9:30 p.m. he went to the scene of a property-damage accident at the intersection of Cedar and Fourth streets. He met with the drivers. One of them, an Emily Ward, 21, of Orono had moved her car down the road from the scene of the accident. Dearing told Ward to bring her car back.

Dearing said a witness told him three men in Ward’s car dumped beer out of the car after the accident. The witness also said that Ward had asked the other parties in the accident not to call the police, even though she was not at fault.

Ward drove her car back, and told Dearing she didn’t have her license on her. A license check showed that Ward’s license was suspended due to an OUI conviction.

Dearing said he noticed that Ward’s dashboard was covered in beer, and that a beer bottle had spilled its foaming contents on the floor.

Ward admitted that her front seat passenger “might have had a beer with him,” Dearing said. Dearing arrested Ward, charging her with operating after suspension, and operating with a passenger in possession of an open alcohol container on a public way.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball