Courts and Crime

PITTSFIELD, Maine — Maine State Police say they’ve charged an 18-year-old Manchester man with driving a Dodge Neon at 146 mph on Interstate 95. That’s more than twice the 70-mph speed limit.

Police say 18-year-old Tyler Barrows was stopped in Pittsfield, Maine, on Wednesday and was charged with criminal speeding, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

LEWISTON, Maine - Crime in Maine has decreased for the fourth consecutive year, according to the state Department of Public Safety. 

Overall, crime dropped by 7 percent in 2015, though some categories of crime increased, such as rape, which jumped by nearly 5 percent. 

But Cara Courchesne of the Maine Coalition on Sexual Assault says that jump is likely due to better reporting. "We definitely, in terms of people calling our crisis support line, see jumps when there are high-profile cases."

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine State police are still trying to untangle what happened last night that led to the shooting death of a Biddeford man.  

Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Steve McCausland says there were several people at the apartment building at the time of the shooting.

"The shooting occurred about 1 o'clock this morning," McCausland says. "There were a number of people there, and our task now is to determine the circumstances of this shooting, which means interviewing a number of people."

The dead man is identified as Jonathan Methot, 30.  

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine State Police have charged a 32-year-old Fairfield man with murder following the discovery of his wife's body on Tuesday.

State Police spokesman Steve McCausland says authorities took Luc Tieman into custody in Waterville this morning at about 10 o'clock.  Tieman is charged in the death of his wife, 34-year-old Valerie Tieman. 

McCausland says Tieman had spent the night in a motel, "and detectives this morning, in consultation with the Maine Attorney General's Office - we collectively made the decision - that an arrest was appropriate."

Eight new state troopers were sworn in at ceremonies at the criminal justice academy last week, but that has done little to ease the vacancies at the Maine State Police.

Lawmakers gave pay raises ranging from 12 percent to 18 percent to troopers after they were convinced the state police was not competitive with other law enforcement agencies both in and out of state.

A federal appeals court has upheld jail sentences for egg industry executive Jack DeCoster and his son, Peter, whose Iowa company caused a nationwide salmonella outbreak in 2010.

The DeCosters were originally sentenced to three months in jail for what U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett called a “litany of shameful conduct” that occurred at their Iowa egg production company. But they were allowed their freedom while they appealed their sentences. They argued, and business groups agreed, that the sentences were unreasonable and unconstitutional.

Maine’s Human Rights Commission on Monday found that eight people who said they’d been discriminated against under Maine law had reasonable grounds for going forward with their cases.

The commission investigates complaints of unlawful discrimination in several spheres, including at work.

The commission found Shasta Roy had reasonable grounds for her hostile workplace and sexual harassment complaint against Theorore’s Seamless Gutters in Richmond.