Man charged in domestic abuse

Bangor police charged an Adams Street man with domestic assault early Tuesday morning after it was reported he struck his wife and then prevented her from calling the police.

An officer responding to the call found the woman crying by the pay phone at the Big Apple convenience store on State Street where she had fled about 2:45 a.m. She told Officer James Hassard that her husband, Robert Sutherland, 48, had struck her in the face with the back of his hand. When she went to call the police, he broke the phone, according to the report.

The woman said Sutherland began breaking things in the apartment, including a small coffee table and some figurines. Sutherland later tried to tell police that his wife was responsible for the destruction.

Apparently in anticipation of snowfall, an 8.5-horsepower snow blower was taken from the driveway of a Union Street home in Bangor. The snow blower was left under a tarp and was taken sometime between 3 and 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

A Bangor woman who left the scene of an accident Monday to have her daughter checked out at a local hospital was intoxicated, according to police.

Lynn Szczech, 43, said she was heading onto Interstate 95 north from Broadway when she took her eyes off the road briefly and struck the guard rail.

Szczech took her 6-year-old daughter to St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor to be examined. Police arrived to investigate after it was reported the mother appeared to have been drinking. Bangor police Officer Kerry Libby assessed the damage to the woman’s car. After Szczech performed field sobriety tests, Libby took the woman into custody.

Szczech was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants and left the police station on foot. The girl’s father picked the daughter up at the hospital.

– Compiled by BDN reporter Doug Kesseli