2 Maine men charged in kidnapping, assault

FRYEBURG – Police have arrested two more men in a kidnapping and assault in which a Boston man was beaten and left naked outside in the aftermath of a botched drug deal.

James Keene, 22, was charged with attempted murder and robbery and Tyler Rogers, 21, was charged with kidnapping, elevated aggravated assault and robbery on Monday. The Fryeburg men were being held at Oxford County Jail while awaiting arraignment on Thursday, officials said.

The two men, along with two New Hampshire men arrested last week, Luke Clough, 23, of Madison and Richard Smith, 20, of North Conway, are accused of taking out retribution on the victim after a drug deal that went bad in Malden, Mass., according to police affidavits filed in court.

The victim, Phillip Swanson, 21, of Boston, was allegedly beaten with baseball bats, stripped of his clothing and left in a snowbank early on March 29 in Fryeburg after being accused of setting up the others, who were robbed when they went to Malden to buy marijuana, police said.

Clough’s girlfriend allegedly drove Swanson to Maine, where the assault took place at a home and continued sometime later on a dead-end road off Route 302 in Fryeburg.

The girlfriend was not charged. Clough and Smith are fighting extradition from New Hampshire. They were arrested April 2 in Madison on charges of aggravated assault, robbery and kidnapping. Clough was also charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.