BANGOR – A former University of Maine football player, who Thursday described himself as a “gentle giant,” was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine after pleading no contest in Penobscot County Superior Court to a misdemeanor assault charge.

Anthony Cotrone, 23, of Orono originally was charged with aggravated assault, a Class B felony, because the victim, a Portland neuro-chiropractor, sustained serious eye injuries. The charge was reduced to a Class D misdemeanor in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The men met outside Margarita’s Restaurant and Watering Hole in Orono about 12:40 a.m. Sept. 29 and got into an argument over Cotrone’s girlfriend. Cotrone and the victim admitted being intoxicated when they got into an altercation in the alley beside the restaurant.

Cotrone hit the doctor, who had followed the football player down the alley, near the eye, breaking the ocular bones. The punch also caused permanent damage to the victim’s vision.

Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said that his office had entered into a plea agreement with Cotrone because of “proof issues” in the case. Campbell told Superior Court Justice John Nivison that the defendant claimed he struck the victim in self-defense.

Cotrone, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and much larger than the victim, was a UM football player when the incident occurred. He still is a student at the university but is no longer on the team, according to UMaine spokesman Joe Carr.

“I’m a mediator, not a fighter,” Cotrone, who graduated in December with a degree in mass communications, told the judge. “My friends call me, a gentle giant. I would never have hit him had I not been afraid that he had a weapon.”

The 25-year-old doctor, who was in Orono last year visiting a friend, protested the lesser charge in court Thursday. He argued that a Class D assault charge did not reflect the seriousness of the crime.

The penalties for a Class B crime are up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 while penalties for a Class D crime are up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

“Now, my career is limited,” the doctor said, citing the loss of his central vision in the injured eye. “It takes me three times longer to read a page as it used to.

“I thought aggravated assault was charged when someone suffered a permanent injury,” the victim continued. “I feel a lesson needs to be learned here and he should not just get a slap on the wrist.”

The victim said after the hearing that he has hired an attorney to sue Cotrone for damages.

Charges in an unrelated case involving former UM athletes also were resolved recently.

Xavier Martin, 19, of Baltimore, Md., pleaded guilty on Feb. 5 in 3rd District Court in Bangor to two misdemeanor counts of misuse of identification and credit cards. Martin, who is no longer a student at the university, was ordered to pay a $300 fine.

In a plea agreement with prosecutors, seven counts of the same charge and one count of receiving stolen property were dropped. Martin faced up to a year in jail and fines of up to $2,000 on each of the Class D misdemeanor counts.

Martin and men’s basketball player Josiah “Malachi” Peay, 19, of Queens, N.Y., was charged along with Martin. He pleaded guilty in November to receiving stolen property, a Class D crime. Peay paid a $250 fine and continues to play on the team.

Former UMaine assistant football coach Michael Winslow 29, of Veazie pleaded guilty earlier this month in 3rd District Court in Bangor to operating under the influence of intoxicants. He was arrested in Orono about 1 a.m. Sept. 23 and resigned three days later.

Winslow, whose blood alcohol level was 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 11.

Because this is his first drunken driving charge, Winslow is expected to be sentenced to 48 hours in jail and ordered to pay a $600 fine. His license also is expected to be suspended for 90 days.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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