The district attorney’s office dismissed five charges, including two felonies, against a man who allegedly assaulted fellow staff members at Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset in late June. District Attorney Natasha Irving said the charges were dismissed “in the interest of justice.”
Known at the time by several names, two ages, and two countries of origin, the man has since been identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as Carlos Dielumbaka Pedro Missione, 21, a citizen of the African country of Angola. Missione was released from Two Bridges Regional Jail last month, according to jail staff.
The department arrested Missione, then a kitchen employee at Chewonki, for assault on a law enforcement officer, along with aggravated assault, criminal restraint, assault, criminal threatening, resisting, disorderly conduct, offensive words, and disorderly conduct fighting.
The charges ultimately filed against him by the state listed three Class D misdemeanor charges of assault, not specifically on a law enforcement officer.
According to case filings at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Wiscasset, Missione pleaded not guilty to all five counts at his arraignment last month and all were then dismissed by the district attorney’s office.
Filings do not specify any reason for dismissal. Representatives at the district attorney’s office said the decision was made “in the interest of justice” and declined to provide more case details.
District Attorney Natasha Irving said Missione pleaded guilty to other charges and the plea agreement was made considering his age, lack of criminal history, case details, and “collateral consequences.”
Irving did not return follow-up requests for information about what charges Missione pleaded guilty to and where they were filed. A search through federal and state databases using his known names did not return results on Aug. 22.
A spokesperson for ICE said the agency only has record of the charges in Lincoln County.
“With young people, we try to work with them to get them on track as opposed to looking for long jail or prison sentences, and serious convictions that result in young people’s inability to have a safe and productive future,” Irving said.
She continued that sentences for “lower risk defendants” like Missione are criminogenic, or shown by data to be connected to future violent crime.
Irving said it is a policy of her office to think about consequences of criminal convictions and sentences, and that the prosecutor’s duty is to seek justice rather than convictions.
In an answer to emailed questions, she did not address whether the victims supported the decision to dismiss charges.
Missione was arrested after midnight on June 24, a training week when no children were on campus. Counselors alleged another staff member had pulled Missione off a female counselor whom he was sitting on top of and hitting in the face. That second counselor allegedly had a detached retina as a result, according to filings.
The original affidavit states Farrell saw Missione walking back and forth in a cabin and “kicking things,” and when Missione approached him without responding to spoken orders, Farrell used his Taser.
Missione then allegedly kicked Farrell and attempted to take a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputy’s Taser while being walked to the police cruiser.
Missione later allegedly told Farrell he did not remember the incident and last recalled smoking an unknown black substance one of the counselors involved gave him, according to the affidavit.
Officer Brooke Keach at Two Bridges Regional Jail, where Missione was held, confirmed on Monday that he was released July 28 under the authority of ICE. He was released into self-custody, meaning he was free to walk, according to Keach.
A spokesperson for ICE said that agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations placed a detainer for Missione on June 26 after his local charges as is standard practice for noncitizens, and then withdrew the retainer when the local charges were dismissed.
He is currently in immigration proceedings with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a separate agency within the U.S. Department of Justice, which administers federal immigration courts, the spokesperson said.
Those proceedings determine whether noncitizens will be ordered for “removal” or eligible “for certain forms of relief from removal.”
Chewonki officials said in July that they were reviewing the camp’s hiring policies within the limits of possibility. Using accepted best practices for summer camps, candidate Social Security numbers are checked against crime registries.
Those screening databases clear the number provided, but cannot verify whether the number actually belongs to that individual, according to Cullen McGough, vice president of marketing, enrollment, and communications for Chewonki Foundation.
McGough said in July that Missione was fired immediately and both assaulted employees left employment voluntarily. The camp decided at that time not to press charges.
