Homeowner fires gunshot to scare men

What started out as an attempt by Maine State Police to stop a speeding vehicle being driven erratically around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday turned into a chase through Bradford and down to Hudson, where the driver and his passenger ran into a protective homeowner, according to police.

Joseph Medieros, 32, who was driving a Plymouth Breeze, and his passenger, Valentino Cote, 43, both of Corinth, tried to elude police by jumping out of the vehicle and running into the woods near a home on Route 43 in Hudson, about a mile from Corinth, police said.

The homeowner, hearing the men and thinking they were attempting to rob him, “fired a shot into the ground to scare them away,” Sgt. Sean Hashey of Maine State Police said Wednesday.

Both men later were found at their homes in Corinth, Hashey said. Medieros was arrested for being a habitual offender, eluding police, and for several outstanding warrants for operating after suspension, unpaid fines and operating without a license. He was taken to Penobscot County Jail. His first appearance is scheduled today in 3rd District Court in Bangor. Hashey said the investigation is continuing and possible charges may be pending for Cote. Penobscot Country Sheriff’s Department deputies also assisted. (Nok-Noi Hauger, BDN)

A 63-year-old Jay man was flown to a Bangor hospital Wednesday afternoon for treatment of injuries he suffered in an all-terrain-vehicle accident in Dexter.

Daniel Holt was riding his Honda four-wheeler on a rough trail off Route 7, across the road from the Department of Transportation shed, when he reportedly struck a rock, causing his ATV to roll over on top of him, according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Holt initially was taken to Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft for treatment of face and neck injuries, but later was flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor because of a pre-existing medical condition requiring that he take blood-thinner medication. He was still being evaluated late Wednesday.

Latti said Warden Jim Fahey reported that Holt was riding with two other people, but that neither the rider in front of him nor the one following him witnessed the accident.

Speed did not appear to be a factor in the accident, which occurred about 2:55 p.m., Latti said. (Dawn Gagnon, BDN)

A raccoon was blamed for a brief power outage Wednesday evening that affected nearly 1,200 Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. customers on the west side of Bangor and a small portion of Hampden.

The raccoon climbed a pole at a Hampden substation, where it encountered a transformer and shorted out three circuits, according to Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. spokeswoman Susan Falloon. The raccoon did not survive the incident, she said.

The outage was reported shortly after 8 p.m. Power was restored in less than an hour, Falloon said. (Dawn Gagnon, BDN)

Some customers of Time Warner Cable of New England in Maine and New Hampshire were without service for two to three hours Wednesday evening because of widespread outages in the Bangor, Milo and Calais areas, as well as in the Lancaster, N.H., area, according to a recorded message on the company’s customer service hot line.

Though service was restored late in the evening, information about the outage’s cause was still unavailable late Wednesday. (Dawn Gagnon, BDN)

Loud arguing reported Tuesday night at the Village Green Motel on Wilson Street in Brewer caused local police to respond and disperse the two men reportedly involved, but just over an hour later officers were called again and returned to the scene.

On the second visit, Brewer officers arrested Mark Wyatt, 44, of Brewer for disorderly conduct and took him to Penobscot County Jail. Because Wyatt allegedly was yelling racial comments at a person in another motel room, the report was forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office as a possible hate crime, the police report states. (Nok-Noi Hauger, BDN)