Alleged car thief arrested in Bangor

Officer Gary Spencer of the Bangor Police Department responded to a report of a stolen vehicle Saturday night. After a brief investigation, the alleged thief was apprehended.

According to police reports, Spencer received a call at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday from a Bangor woman who said her black Saab had been stolen from the parking lot of Captain Nick’s restaurant on Union Street. The car’s key was bent, so the woman had left it in the ignition.

Later that evening, Officer Eric Tourtellotte saw a black Saab being driven near the Job Corps on Union Street with two males inside. Tourtellotte found that the plates matched those of the stolen vehicle. The officer pulled the car over and identified a juvenile from Bangor as the driver, and Matthew Grass, an 18-year-old transient, in the passenger seat. Grass reportedly said the driver had a learner’s permit, and said he was taking his friend out to practice parallel parking.

The officer asked Grass whether it was his car, and Grass claimed that it belonged to a friend who had let him borrow it.

Tourtellotte reportedly then approached a Job Corps security guard, who said that Grass had been issued a criminal trespass warning on Job Corps property. The guard then identified Grass as the passenger in the car before the report of the theft at 9:45 p.m.

Tourtellotte returned to the car and began to read Grass his Miranda warning, but Grass waived the reading and said again that he had borrowed the car, but perhaps his friend had stolen it. He was arrested and charged with unauthorized use of property and was taken to Penobscot County Jail without incident. The juvenile passenger was not charged.

Later in the evening, Tourtellotte spoke with several friends of Grass’. One said that she had been picked up by Grass in the black Saab earlier that evening, and the other said that the friend he claimed the car belonged to had left the state that day, and that she had seen Grass in the car and believed it was he who had stolen it. A charge of auto theft was added to charge of unauthorized use of property.

A Bangor man was arrested for an alleged domestic assault Sunday morning.

Officer Tyler Leighton responded to a call from an Ohio Street residence and reportedly was met in the street by Richard Dematteo, age unknown, who said he was fighting with the mother of his baby, and she wanted him out.

The mother, who lives with Dematteo and her current husband, said that Dematteo pushed her on her chest, and she showed the officer red marks from the alleged assault. Dematteo then got into an altercation with her husband.

Dematteo was charged with assault and taken to the Penobscot County Jail.

A drunken and disorderly bar patron was charged with assault early Sunday morning and faces two other charges as well, Bangor police said.

Officer Shawn Green of the Bangor Police Department was flagged down by a group outside The Tavern on Main Street who said that a woman was pushed to the ground by 22-year-old James Laird, residence unknown. A witness said that Laird was in the parking lot in back of the bar.

Green and Officer Eric Tourtellotte found Laird, who allegedly became aggressive with the officers. He was severely intoxicated, used profanity and made threatening comments to members of the crowd, police said. Tourtellotte issued him a warning for disorderly conduct and told him he would be arrested if he didn’t calm down.

Laird calmed down momentarily, but then started to act up again, after which Tourtellotte and Green decided to arrest him. They grabbed him by the arms, and Laird reportedly tried to pull away from the officers. They tried to pin him to a wall, but Laird lost his balance and hit his head on the building and fell into a kneeling position.

Laird was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and refusal to submit to arrest, and was issued a summons for assault. He was taken to the Penobscot County Jail, where he reportedly was aggressive with jail staff and had to be subdued.

– Compiled by BDN reporter Emily Burnham