Bangor police arrested a Bucksport woman after she threatened the life of a mental health worker and held another woman hostage Tuesday evening.

Officer Chris Desmond reported that at about 6:20 p.m. he went to Northeast Occupational Exchange on Franklin Street where a patient reportedly was holding a caseworker hostage.

Desmond and Officer Dennis Townsend went to the glass door of an office. They could see a woman identified as Laurie Beal, 39, of Bucksport next to the door holding scissors. Another woman could be seen inside the office. Desmond said Beal asked to contact her probation officer.

Beal refused to open the door or drop the scissors, Desmond said.

Desmond said Beal called a woman to her. The woman, her caseworker, walked calmly to where Beal was standing and let Beal put her arm around her neck, holding the scissors next to the woman’s throat.

The officers obtained a key to the office and convinced Beal to let the caseworker go and to put the scissors down. Desmond said that only at this point did he realize there was a third woman in the room.

The officers secured Beal. Desmond said Beal’s probation officer was reached, and she authorized a probation hold.

Speaking to those involved, Desmond learned that Beal had been upset because her psychiatrist had refused to see her and had obtained a protection order against her. When Beal started talking to her caseworker about bombing people, her caseworker warned Beal that she would have to tell the police. Beal became enraged, witnesses said, and held the two women in the office.

The caseworker told Desmond she wasn’t afraid of Beal, and didn’t believe Beal would have stabbed her. The other woman, also a caregiver, said she was very afraid and was not sure what Beal could have done.

Desmond took Beal to Penobscot County Jail, where she was booked on the probation hold. She also was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and criminal restraint.

Brewer police summoned a man Wednesday afternoon after he allegedly ran a driver off the road in Veazie.

Veazie police Officer Michael Adams said that at about half past noon a man was driving out of Graystone Trailer Park on State Street when another man driving a blue Chevrolet Cavalier forced him off the road.

The man followed the Cavalier down State Street, he told Adams, and saw it swerve around a garbage truck and into oncoming traffic, nearly striking sanitation workers. At this point, the witness turned around and went to the police station.

Officer Adams said the license plate number the witness gave him was not valid. The witness was acquainted with the erratic driver, and, after speaking to the man’s family, Adams notified Brewer police that the man likely would arrive soon at his home on Chamberlain Street in Brewer.

Brewer police Officer Paul Gauvin met the man, Jeremy Ryder, 22, at Ryder’s house. Adams said the car was not in the yard, but Ryder showed Gauvin where he had hidden it. Gauvin learned that Ryder had bought the car recently, and the seller gave him some old plates with it.

Ryder’s license was suspended, Adams said. He was summoned for operating after suspension, driving to endanger and illegal attachment of plates.

Adams noted that this was the sixth time Ryder’s license has been suspended.

Orono police summoned a woman Tuesday morning after she allegedly pulled her aunt’s phone cord out of the wall.

Officer Lee Miller reported that at about 8 a.m. he went to a Main Street residence where two people were wanted removed.

Miller said he learned that Mandy Ross, 26, of Orono refused to leave her aunt’s home after being asked to do so. When her aunt threatened to call police, Miller said, Ross pulled the phone cord out of the wall.

Ross was summoned for criminal trespassing and obstructing the report of a crime.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball