Maine woman arrested in Tennessee

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A woman who was acquitted of killing her husband in Maine has been jailed for a second time for domestic assault.

Amy Bowen, formerly Amy Dugas, was arrested on March 19 for assaulting her husband of three weeks at their home in Rockvale, police said.

It was her second arrest since moving to Tennessee to try to start her life over after being tried for murder in Maine. In September, police arrested her for assaulting her boyfriend at the time, also at her Rockvale home.

In Maine, Amy Dugas testified that the fatal stabbing of her husband Mark with a foot-long kitchen knife in 2004 was self-defense.

She was later found guilty of assaulting her husband and a sheriff’s deputy in an incident that took place prior to the slaying in Waldoboro, Maine. In that incident, she kicked a police officer in the groin when the officer tried to arrest her.

After moving to Tennessee, Dugas took on her maiden name, Bowen. In Maine, District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau says he hopes to have Bowen returned from Tennessee.

“We’ve requested an arrest warrant in Maine for violation of probation,” Rushlau told WTVF-TV. “They have a case against her and normally that means they resolve that case first, before she’s eligible to be extradited back to Maine.”

Bowen, 38, is married to a former jail guard from Maine who moved to Tennessee to be with her. Her two children had lived with her in Rutherford County but were taken away after her arrest last year.

Bowen’s husband, Brian Pelletier, insists the arrest was a misunderstanding and that there was no assault.