Doctor: Witham previously beaten

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PORTLAND – Maxine Witham was admitted to Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport in 2003 claiming that boyfriend David Haraden had beaten her for four days, an emergency room physician testified Wednesday.

Haraden, 48, of Rockport, is charged with Witham’s murder. She died in January after suffering a beating in a room she was sharing with Haraden in the Eastland Park Hotel in Portland.

His trial in Cumberland County Superior Court entered its second day on Wednesday.

Dr. James Curtis told the jury that Witham, 35, was brought in by ambulance on Nov. 30, 2003, with injuries to her face, chest, arms and legs, and that hair had been pulled out in clumps from her head.

Referring to his notes, Curtis told jurors he had written down Witham’s explanation: “I was beaten.”

Witham also said it was her boyfriend or fiance who beat her over four days before the 2003 emergency room visit in Knox County.

The incident led to Haraden’s arrest, but charges against him in Knox County were dismissed when Witham later insisted her injuries were the result of a sparring accident with Haraden, who holds a black belt in the martial art of tae kwon do.

Under questioning by Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese while the jury was out of the courtroom Tuesday, Curtis said he and nurses at the hospital tried to help Witham escape her situation.

“I think we were all alarmed at … how brutalized this woman was,” he said.

During cross-examination by Haraden’s attorney, Maura Keaveney, Curtis said Witham’s face “was quite swollen,” and she complained of headaches and neck pain.

“I felt she was the victim of domestic violence” Curtis testified. “It looked like somebody who had been beaten,” and not someone who had fallen. “There was really not much question it was assault,” he said.

To a question from Marchese, Curtis said Witham did not mention any sparring during her stay at the hospital.

Also with the jury out of the courtroom, Keaveney objected to Curtis testifying as prejudicial, but Justice Robert Crowley allowed it.

Curtis also reported that Witham’s blood alcohol level was 0.42, which would be five times Maine’s drunken driving threshold. She told him she had been drinking “to numb the pain” of the beating.

Curtis kept Witham overnight in the Rockport ER. The next morning he and nurses advised her of options to escape domestic violence, including securing a protection order against Haraden, with whom she shared a home in Rockport, and seeking assistance from New Hope for Women, a domestic violence agency.

On Tuesday, Witham’s voice was heard in the Portland courtroom when Marchese played a voice mail message Witham had left for Russell Pachman of San Francisco at 9:12 p.m. EST Sunday, Jan. 2.

Pachman, who attended high school in Massachusetts with Witham, testified that he did not retrieve the message until a couple of days later after he had learned she was dead.

“She was one of my closest friends,” Pachman said, but he had cut off ties with Witham, urging her not to call again until she sought help for her alcohol abuse.

A timeline developed by police and prosecutors suggests that Haraden may have begun beating Witham sometime after Witham called Pachman.

On the tape, she can be heard wishing her friend a happy New Year, relating that “David says ‘Hi,'” and saying they were about to walk their dog.

David Severance, an employee of the Portland hotel, testified Wednesday that data retrieved from the couple’s room door lock revealed that a key card had been used to open the door at 9:39 Sunday night – presumably after the couple walked their dog, which they were keeping in their room.

The next day, Jan. 3, the door was unlocked just twice – at 3:13 p.m. and 3:47 p.m. Severance testified the lock does not record when the door is opened by someone inside the room or when it is propped open.

Haraden’s attorney said in his opening argument that a college-aged man had been in the room and had sexual relations with Witham, beat her, then escaped. Haraden had told police he pursued the man, but could not catch him.

Haraden called the couple’s Lincolnville physician on Jan. 4 to report Witham being dead in the room, saying she had been dead for a while and was beginning to smell.

State Medical Examiner Margaret Greenwald testified Wednesday that Witham probably died 21 to 36 hours before she examined the body on the afternoon of Jan. 4. That means she died early Monday morning or Monday afternoon, Jan. 3.

Greenwald also testified that Witham died from multiple trauma to her head, face, neck and abdomen, the result of “multiple impacts” consistent with being struck by a hand or fist.

A photograph projected for the jury showed Witham’s face as she lay in the hotel bed – more than half of her facial skin was dark red and purple, and dried blood trailed from her nose and mouth.

Greenwald said some of the wounds on her arms and hands could have come from defending herself.

Witham’s blood alcohol level when she died was 0.22, she said.

Under cross-examination, Greenwald said Witham suffered from alcohol liver disease, which could have made the laceration found on her liver more likely.