November 07, 2024
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Newport man charged after rollover on I-395

A Newport man was arrested and charged with operating under the influence of intoxicants, driving to endanger and carrying a concealed weapon after his pickup truck rolled over a guardrail on Interstate 395 in Bangor early Sunday morning, police said.

Officer Kerry Libby encountered cars at a standstill around 12:30 a.m. on the westbound on-ramp to I-395 from Main Street and found a truck on its roof on the other side of the guardrail about 240 feet up the ramp.

An apparently enraged Winston McTague, 41, of Newport was near the truck with his three passengers, and all were visibly intoxicated, Libby reported.

McTague was on his way home from a Bob Marley comedy show with his wife and another couple, police said. No one was hurt in the rollover, but the truck was totaled.

According to police, McTague said he had been run off the road by a red truck.

McTague was given a field sobriety test and failed, police said. He also allegedly had Percocet and other prescription medications in his system.

McTague resisted when Libby tried to handcuff him, and it took assistance from two other officers to get him cuffed and into the cruiser, police said. Libby was punched in the left temple in the struggle, reports said.

At the station, McTague was given an Intoxilyzer test, which recorded his blood-alcohol level at 0.12 percent.

He was then taken to the Penobscot County Jail and booked.

The concealed-weapon charge was lodged because brass knuckles and a knife were found in McTague’s clothing, according to police.

The accident scene was reconstructed, and it was determined that McTague was traveling at 60 mph at the time of the accident, police said.

– COMPILED BY BDN REPORTER CHELSEY LEDUE


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