Suspect in Belfast assault scheduled to be deported

BELFAST – A Mexican national arrested for domestic assault Saturday is scheduled to be deported as an illegal alien.

Jorge Hernandez-Lopez, 22, of Mexico is being held at the Waldo County Jail on a charge of domestic assault.

A corrections officer at the jail said Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, already had placed a detainer on Hernandez-Lopez with the intent to have him deported. Before that can happen, he must be arraigned on the Maine charge.

Police Chief Jeffrey Trafton said officers were called to a High Street apartment at 11:15 p.m. Saturday by a Spanish-speaking woman in distress.

The language barrier prevented the woman from communicating her problem to the Waldo County Regional Communications Center.

When Officer Wendall Ward arrived at the residence, he found three males, three females and one child, none of whom spoke conversational English.

Ward contacted a Spanish-speaking employee of Club 132 and brought him to the apartment to serve as an interpreter.

From the discussion, police learned that Hernandez-Lopez and a female companion had gotten into an argument about where they were going to eat that evening and that Hernandez-Lopez allegedly slapped the woman.

Trafton said detective Michael McFadden had been assigned to look into the identities of the others at the apartment to determine if they were in the country legally.

“We’re looking into it,” Trafton said Monday.