Chases, burglary and assaults keep police busy

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — The Dexter Police Department had an unusually busy week that started with a high-speed chase involving a dirt bike and ended with an assault on an officer making an arrest on a domestic complaint.
    The activity started on Friday, April 25 when Lt. Alan Grinnell clocked a dirt bike on Liberty Street “doing 70 mph in a 25 mile-per-hour zone,” said Police Chief Kevin Wintle. The bike was observed going down Lincoln Street, then headed north on the railroad bed.

    Grinnell contacted Wintle, who set up his cruiser at Dam and Grove streets by the rail bed. “I had lights flashing and I was standing outside trying to wave him down. He went right around me and crossed the bridge at A.E. Robinson’s,” Wintle said.
    Wintle then went to Silvers Mills Road where he observed a single bike-tire track “turning onto the pavement” but couldn’t locate the vehicle. He then requested assistance from the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department and the Maine Warden Service.
    But due to a combination of sharp observations and good fortune, Grinnell, who was also on the scene, spotted a vehicle that was seen in the vicinity of the bike rider’s home. When officers stopped it, one of the passengers — Jeffrey M. Eckman, 37, of Dexter — admitted he was the bike rider. “He had dumped it on a side road at a relative’s camp in Sangerville,” Wintle said.
    Eckman was charged with operating after suspension, criminal speed (30 mph-plus) and refusing to stop for a law enforcement officer. Wintle added that Eckman does have a “prior history” with the department.
    A burglary on the morning of April 24 at Toot’s Delicatessen resulted in an arrest last Friday, Wintle said. The suspect smashed in the front door of the deli around 2:45 a.m., a male subject entered and went to the “only safe visible in the store,” the chief said. “He grabbed it and went out the same way he came in.”
    However, the entire escapade was captured on camera. After completing their investigation, Dexter police arrested Christopher A. Richardson of Dexter and charged him with Class D burglary. The safe was found on May 5, about 600 yards downstream of the Sebasticook River off Water Street.
    Also on May 2, an arrest warrant was issued by the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department for Reginald Melvin, 48, of Dexter on charges of aggravated assault.
    Melvin was shot in the abdomen at a Dover-Foxcroft residence during an argument on April 22; and Kyle Corson, 21; and Wilbur Joe Corson, 22, have been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, elevated aggravated assault and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon in that incident.
    Dover-Foxcroft Police Lt. Scott Arno and Officer Jim Carr searched for Melvin in various places around Dexter with no luck. But around 4:20 p.m., Wintle found him walking out of the Family Dollar Store. “He was taken into custody without incident and brought to the Penobscot County Jail,” Wintle said.
    The week ended — or started again — at 4:39 a.m. Monday, May 5 when Officer Dana Gatcomb responded to call for a domestic disturbance in progress at 4 Lakeview Ave. in Dexter. According to the police report, the male “head-butted a female subject in the face.”
    Gatcomb placed Ryan M. Girard, 23, under arrest who was “extremely combative,” said Wintle. “He was handcuffed, placed in the new cruiser and tried to smash the side windows with his feet. When Office Gatcomb told him to calm down, he kicked him in the arm.”
    Girard, who was also taken to Penobscot County Jail, was charged with domestic violence assault, assault on a police officer and disorderly conduct.