Probation charge against St. Albans man dropped

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A probation violation charge against a St. Albans man accused of threatening a woman in the Borestone Mountain area last fall was dismissed Friday because the district attorney, who was handling another case in an adjacent courthouse, failed to make an appearance.

Justice Jeffrey Hjelm dismissed the charge lodged against Mark Meech, 39, who reportedly violated his probation when he allegedly tried to commandeer the woman’s vehicle as she was leaving Elliotsville Township. Meech reportedly reached inside an open passenger window and grabbed the steering wheel of the woman’s vehicle in an attempt to stop her.

Hjelm’s dismissal involved only the probation violation charge. The original charges of criminal threatening, reckless conduct and attempted theft filed against Meech in the October incident will be heard at a later date.

When the incident occurred, Meech was on probation from a 2000 conviction of four counts of burglary and one count each of cruelty to animals and operating a motor vehicle after revocation. Meech shot and killed one dog and seriously injured another dog at one of the four homes he had burglarized.

The latest case against Meech, the probation violation, was presented Feb. 29 in one of two simultaneous Superior Court sessions held in separate Piscataquis County courtrooms before two different justices. The Meech case was held before Justice Hjelm in the District Courthouse, which was being used as a Superior Court. Justice Kevin Cuddy was sitting in Superior Court.

District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, who blamed the dismissal on scheduling problems, said Thursday he planned to file a motion to reconsider Hjelm’s decision to drop the charge. Almy said he was in one courthouse representing the state in a case of operating while under the influence of intoxicants when Meech’s charge was presented in an adjacent courthouse.

“I can’t be in two places at once. That’s a simple fact,” Almy said Thursday. “I was in the courtroom in Superior Court trying a jury trial; he [Hjelm] called the case and I wasn’t there, and he threw out the probation violation.”

This was the first time two simultaneous Superior Court sessions have been held in Piscataquis County, although the District and Superior courts often hold court sessions at the same time.

When the scheduling of the two Superior Courts was suggested on Jan. 10, Almy said he felt he would have enough time to go back and forth between two judges and handle all the cases. He said originally jury selection for the OUI case was to have been done Monday and the case heard Thursday and Friday; the Meech case was to have been presented Friday. A week before the Feb. 29 session, Almy said, the judicial system changed the jury selection for the OUI from Monday, Feb. 25, to Thursday, Feb. 28, which pushed the case well into Friday.

That change was made, according to Superior Court Clerk Lisa Richardson, to save money.

“It didn’t financially make sense to select a jury on February 25 since the parties couldn’t start until Thursday because of prior commitments as far as experts, so we would have ended up paying three days’ worth of jury costs instead of what turned out to be two,” Richardson said Thursday. The case still went well into the afternoon Friday, she noted.

Almy said he told the court when that change was made that it would cause him problems with scheduling. He filed a motion with the court on Feb. 25 to continue the Meech case, but Hjelm denied the motion.

“The judicial branch needs to cooperate with the DA’s office,” Almy said. While this was the first conflict he has encountered with two separate Superior Courts in Piscataquis County, Almy said he has had many scheduling problems in Penobscot County Superior Court.

“We’re having problems not just in this instance, but in generally speaking, we’re having these kind of scheduling problems in Penobscot County Superior Court a lot. They’ve been overscheduling us. We cannot do what they’re asking us to do. They’re just making our job harder.”

Asked why he didn’t have an assistant district attorney handle one of the two Piscataquis County cases, Almy said he had prepared them both. He said he had interviewed Meech’s alleged victim and had prepared the case for trial and he didn’t think it was fair to her to change prosecutors midstream. Besides, Almy said, he didn’t have any people in his office to spare because of the Penobscot County Superior Court workload. “They’re swamping us [with status conferences, motion lists and call of the dockets],” he said.

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