November 09, 2024
Column

Police figure which sister to charge with OUI

Bangor police stopped a motorist Monday who claimed to be her sister, received corroboration from a family member, but was eventually identified as herself.

Officer Rob Angelo stopped Crystal Otis, 23, of Veazie for driving erratically and without headlights and speeding at 9:10 p.m. on Ohio Street. He recognized her from a previous encounter. However, Otis insisted she was her sister, who lives in Florida. She failed field sobriety tests, and Angelo arrested her on a charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants.

Otis continued to claim she was her sister despite evidence to the contrary. A search of the car uncovered her identification card. She also matched a recent picture from Penobscot County Jail, according to the police report.

Officer Wade Betters called Otis’ mother in Veazie. “To my surprise, she told me that Crystal was currently at home with her,” Betters reported. The mother suggested the woman in custody was her other daughter.

Betters called the sister in Florida and confirmed she was there. Then he called the mother again. She apologized, claiming she thought her daughter Crystal was asleep in the house, the officer reported. When Betters asked about the daughter in Florida, she said, “Well, I told you I had a buzz on.”

Crystal Otis was charged with OUI, operating a motor vehicle after license suspension and failure to give correct name.

– . –

An Indian Island man charged with terrorizing his ex-girlfriend Oct. 23 violated his bail conditions when he reportedly became intoxicated and belligerent at the Chocolate Grille in Old Town on Wednesday night.

Alan Francis, 41, bought a round of drinks and consumed two beers and a shot of alcohol but could pay only $15 of a $43 bar tab. He then opened up the 5-inch blade of a pocketknife in front of the bartender, according to Old Town police Officer Bobbie Pelletier.

“The bartender said he didn’t feel threatened by it,” Pelletier said Thursday.

However, the bartender did call police, who arrived and physically removed Francis from the restaurant.

Francis was arrested and charged with violation of condition of release, and was returned to Penobscot County Jail.

– . –

Bangor police officers following a concerned Barnaby’s waitress into the deserted restaurant discovered a Corinth man who apparently had mistaken a booth for a urinal.

Zachary G. Eaton, 24, was found urinating on a seat cushion at 12:10 a.m. Thursday.

Officers asked him to stop a couple of times before he did so, and they reported he appeared intoxicated. He was issued a summons for criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

The estimated cleanup cost for the booth was $150.

– . –

A Bangor woman stopped for erratic driving Wednesday night was discovered to have a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit and $1,850 in cash in her glove box.

Another motorist reported that Melinda Leen, 42, seemed intoxicated at the Union Street Wendy’s. After an officer observed Leen swerving around her lane, he stopped her and administered field sobriety tests, which she did not pass.

The officer asked her twice if she had been drinking, and Leen denied both times that she had been. A test revealed Leen’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent.

She was arrested and charged with operating while under the influence and brought to Penobscot County Jail. No explanation was given for the large sum of money she had.

– . –

An officer on a routine University of Maine campus patrol Thursday discovered a student pursuing illicit activities in a parked car at 2:29 a.m. Joseph R. Corey, 18, of Winslow was summoned for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

– . –

A collision between a Ford Bronco and a moose ended in tragedy for both the moose and the Bronco, but only minor injuries to a passenger in the vehicle. Rachel Shropshire, 22, of Hudson was heading east on Route 43 when a moose ran into the road. She hit the moose with the passenger side of the Bronco and killed it.

A girl riding in the passenger’s seat received minor injuries from broken glass, officers said.

The moose was removed by the Warden Service.

Officers estimated damage to the Bronco at $3,500.

– . –

One traffic stop of an erratic driver yielded two arrests for Bangor police at 12:45 a.m. Thursday.

Renee Wall, 28, of Rockland was driving her companion, David Bates, 21, of Rockland to an undetermined location after they had celebrated his birthday, when an officer witnessed her driving the wrong way for over 100 feet on Hammond Street. She then drove the car onto the median for about 50 feet before heading in the correct direction in the correct lane.

When the officer stopped her, she apologized for making a wrong turn and said it was because she wasn’t from the area. She told the officer that she had a child at home, and that she was only going to Rockland. When the officer asked her to perform field sobriety tests, she said they had a room at the Ramada.

Wall’s blood-alcohol level registered at 0.09 percent, and the officer found that her license was restricted until 2010.

Wall was arrested and charged with operating while under the influence and operating without a license.

Her companion, Bates, told Officer Shawn Green that he was out of jail on bail from a medication theft charge. His bail conditions stated he was not to use or possess drugs or alcohol. He told Green he had taken some prescription Ritalin earlier that night, and his blood-alcohol level registered at 0.15 percent.

Bates was arrested and charged with violation of release conditions.

– Compiled by NEWS reporters

Abigail Curtis and Doug Kesseli


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like