Castine selectman to serve 30-day sentence for assault incident

ELLSWORTH – Castine Selectman Kenneth Eaton will serve a 30-day sentence stemming from an incident at a local restaurant in January.

Eaton was found guilty last week in 5th District Court after he pleaded no contest to charges of criminal threatening and assault.

Eaton, 60, was arrested in January after he entered a restaurant in Castine where his wife and a longtime friend were having dinner. According to police reports, he brandished a handgun and punched the man, then left the restaurant with his wife.

He was initially charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, but pleaded no contest to the lesser charges. The charges, according to Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich, carry with them jail time, probation and a requirement for counseling, which, he said, met his goals in resolving this case.

State supreme court Justice Donald Alexander, who was filling in for District Court Judge Bernard Staples, imposed concurrent sentences of 30 days in the Hancock County Jail on the criminal threatening and assault charges against the man. At Eaton’s request, the sentence was stayed until Dec. 1. He also was required to forfeit the weapon, a revolver.

Alexander also sentenced Eaton to nine months in jail in connection with the charge of assault on his wife. That sentence was suspended and, because this was a case of domestic assault, he will serve a nine-month probation. The sentence also requires that he abstain from using alcohol and drugs and that he obtain counseling, according to Povich.