Police summon man in tussle caught on tape

The ex-husband of a woman who appeared in court Friday after being indicted on two counts of arson received a summons for disorderly conduct after he shoved away a WABI-TV 5 cameraman’s lens.

David Clark of WABI was outside the Superior Courthouse just before 9:30 a.m. when Eric Tableman left the building. Melissa Tableman, Eric Tableman’s ex-wife, was in court to face arson charges stemming from a July 17 fire in Hermon and another fire on July 11, 2004, at the home the two shared at the time in Corinth.

According to the police report, Clark moved down the driveway to get a better shot of Eric Tableman. The Brewer man allegedly stuck his middle finger up in front of the lens, grabbed the camera and pushed it off to the side.

Clark told police that Eric Tableman then got into his car and raised his middle finger again toward the cameraman before driving away.

The incident was captured on tape. A Bangor police officer viewed the video and drove to Tableman’s home, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.

A man was arrested and charged with two counts of theft after he allegedly stole around $130 worth of merchandise from J.C. Penney and Macy’s at the Bangor Mall.

Officer Ed Mercier responded to a call just after 1 p.m. Friday at J.C. Penney. The store’s loss prevention officer had apprehended Justin Berry, 19, after he received a tip from a Macy’s employee that the man might have stolen from the store.

According to the police report, the Macy’s employee witnessed Berry taking a bottle of cologne and several items of clothing into a fitting room. She told police that Berry left the room and returned the clothes, but did not return the cologne.

She checked the stall but the cologne was not there, so she followed Berry through the mall and into J.C. Penney, where she told the loss prevention officer what had happened. The officer watched Berry on the store’s surveillance system.

Again, Berry took several articles of clothing into the fitting room, but came out with a lighter load, and the loss prevention officer noted that his clothing looked “thicker.”

Berry was found to be wearing two layers of clothes and the stolen cologne was in one of his pockets. Officer Mercier took Berry to Penobscot County Jail.

-Compiled by BDN reporter Nick McCrea