Baileyville man to serve three years for assault on ex-girlfriend, her son

DOVER-FOXCROFT — A Baileyville man was sentenced Monday, Sept. 24 at the Piscataquis Judicial Center in Dover-Foxcroft to seven years in prison with all but three suspended on a series of charges stemming from a January domestic violence assault.

Superior Court Justice William Anderson also sentenced Timothy Curtis, 29, to three years of probation and ordered him to pay a $400 fine, according to Marianne Lynch, deputy attorney general for Piscataquis County. Conditions of probation included Curtis attending batterers’ intervention classes, substance abuse counseling and abstaining for alcohol use.

Curtis was convicted in July of domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence criminal threatening, domestic violence assault, theft of a firearm, illegal possession of Suboxone and a bail violation following a two-day trial in Dover-Foxcroft.

Curtis was found not guilty of aggravated assault, according to his attorney, Christopher Smith of Bangor.

Jurors found that Curtis assaulted his girlfriend and her son in early January. The incident lasted several hours, Lynch said Monday.

Lynch quoted the judge as saying about the incident: “This the way people get killed in domestic violence assaults.”

In May, a Penobscot County jury found Curtis not guilty of domestic violence criminal threatening in an alleged incident last year with a different woman, District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said in July.

The female victims in both cases sat together Monday at Curtis’ sentencing, according to Lynch.

Curtis has been held at the Piscataquis County Jail unable to post a high cash bail since his arrest following the incident, the prosecutor said. That time will be applied to his sentence.

A request for comment from Curtis’ attorney was not immediately returned Monday.

Smith said after the trial in July that although Curtis was convicted of stealing a gun, technically, it was not stolen.

“The firearm was a .22 [caliber] handgun, which had been lost by a friend several weeks earlier, found by Mr. Curtis, but not returned,” the defense attorney said. “According to the victim’s testimony, the firearm was handled during the incident, but not at the same time as when verbal threats were made. The victim was not held at gunpoint.”

Curtis faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 on the most serious charge.