Bail set at $100,000 for Unity robbery suspect

BELFAST – The man accused of robbing Unity Pharmacy with a gun and knife will be held on $100,000 cash bail, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Sean Kivlin, 29, of Unity was charged with robbery and eluding a police officer.

Police said Kivlin walked into Unity Pharmacy at 11:52 a.m. Friday wearing mittens, with a scarf around his head and face, “armed with a butcher knife in one hand and a gun covered with a pink cloth in the right hand,” according to an affidavit filed with 5th District Court.

Kivlin demanded “that all narcotics be placed in a white plastic bag he brought into the store with him,” stated the affidavit, filed by Detective Bryant White of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department.

Kivlin fled in a green car and was pursued by Shane Savage, owner of Unity Pharmacy, in his vehicle. Savage kept dispatchers posted by cell phone during the pursuit, as officers from several agencies in three counties tried to locate Kivlin and intervene.

Maine State Police Detective Scott Bryant followed Kivlin’s vehicle for 10 miles at speeds of 60 to 85 mph until Sgt. Tom Ballard, also of the state police, put a spike mat across the path of the car, causing its tires to go flat.

Kivlin was arrested on Route 131 at Western Ridge Road in Appleton about a half-hour after the chase began.

Chief Deputy Bob Keating of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday investigators are trying to determine whether Friday’s robbery was linked to similar armed robberies, also involving a gun and knife, of Fairfield and Pittsfield pharmacies. All three pharmacies were robbed on the 21st of the month.

Also being reviewed is the Jan. 6 armed robbery of the Unity branch of Bangor Savings Bank, Keating said.

“We’re progressing,” he said.

If Kivlin is able to raise the cash bail, Keating said, law enforcement agencies would request that he be held under house arrest and be subject to searches and tests for drug use.

During the chase, Kivlin allegedly consumed what he believed were narcotics taken in the robbery, but were in fact M&M candies.