A convicted sex offender wanted in Oregon was arrested in Bangor on Wednesday by police investigating a report of an assault.

Jack H. Heflin, 30, was not charged with assault – there were conflicting accounts and unanswered questions, police reported – although he was taken to the Penobscot County Jail in preparation for extradition to Oregon.

Heflin served time in prison for rape and was on supervised release since August 2000, although Oregon authorities suspended the release last March, according to police reports. The March 20 order by the Board of Parole/Post-Prison Supervision also authorized a nationwide warrant for the arrest of Heflin, who used the name Casey Smith to avoid capture by police.

In Bangor, Heflin’s former girlfriend identified him as her assailant Wednesday afternoon while waiting for a bus at Pickering Square. She also claimed Heflin had punched her Monday, when they broke up and she moved out.

Officer Myron Warner met with the former girlfriend at Eastern Maine Medical Center. A nurse there reported finding slight swelling on the right side of her head, where the 21-year-old woman said Heflin struck her. The woman reported that in both instances, Heflin threatened to kill her if she called the police or took out a protection order against him.

Heflin was located later Wednesday and told police he hadn’t seen his former girlfriend since Monday. Another former girlfriend, a 23-year-old from Bucksport, told police she had visited Heflin on Monday and that Heflin had been showing the 21-year-old woman karate moves. The Bucksport woman said that at no point did Heflin harm the other woman and that she had been receptive to the karate demonstration.

In addition to the conflicting stories, Warner said there were no other witnesses to the assault despite it taking place at 3 p.m. at Pickering Square and that the woman apparently had filed previous unsubstantiated complaints.

A man and a woman stepped out into traffic on Hammond Street on Wednesday and the man grilled a motorist who had been forced to stop suddenly.

Roger Meserve, 22, wanted to know what the motorist was looking at and whether the motorist had a problem.

“No, but I think you do,” responded the motorist, who turned out to be Bangor police Detective Larry Ellis who was driving an unmarked Bangor police cruiser with another detective sitting in the passenger seat.

A computer check determined that Meserve was wanted on a warrant for failure to pay a fine on a disorderly conduct charge. Meserve was arrested and taken to the Penobscot County Jail.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli