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Justin L. George |
By J.W. Oliver
An Albion man allegedly hit a man with a car and threatened to kill a Wiscasset woman and her 15-year-old daughter in Wiscasset Aug. 26.
Justin L. George, 25, also threatened to “blow up or burn down” the woman’s Wiscasset apartment, according to an affidavit by Wiscasset Patrol Officer Donald Smith.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted George Dec. 10 on charges of Class A elevated aggravated assault and Class D terrorizing.
According to Smith’s affidavit, George and his girlfriend drove from Augusta to a Wiscasset apartment to confront Joshua Rivera, also 25, Aug. 26.
The girlfriend allegedly told Smith that she and George planned to confront Rivera, her ex-boyfriend, about a complaint she filed against Rivera with the Augusta Police Department.
George confronted Rivera and, during the confrontation, threatened a 50-year-old Wiscasset woman and her 15-year-old daughter. George said “he would return and blow up or burn down the apartment and kill them,” Smith said in his affidavit.
George and his girlfriend returned to their 1998 Audi A4 to leave after learning the police had been called.
The Audi, with George at the wheel, “struck Joshua Rivera with enough force to cause Joshua to roll up onto the hood of the vehicle and into the windshield,” Smith said. “The vehicle continued approximately 50 feet with Joshua on the hood before he fell off.”
Rivera was transported by ambulance to Mid Coast Hospital and later transferred to Maine Medical Center for treatment of arm and leg fractures and a possible head injury.
George and his girlfriend allegedly left the scene. Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Dutil located the Audi a half-hour later on the bridge between Randolph and Gardiner. “The vehicle was out of gas and had extensive damage to the windshield,” according to Smith.
George had left the vehicle to buy gas. His girlfriend told Smith that Rivera had been “in front of the vehicle, trying to get (George) to exit the vehicle to fight,” Smith said in the affidavit. The couple started to drive away when George “swerved and struck” Rivera.
George did not return to the vehicle, but turned himself in at the Wiscasset Police Department the next day.
George is on probation for a 2011 robbery conviction.
In the 2011 incident, George was stranded in Augusta after his car became stuck in a snowbank in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, according to the Morning Sentinel. Two men offered him a ride and, upon arriving home, George attempted to rob the men at knife point.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with all but 17 months suspended, and three years of probation.
As of Dec. 16, George is in custody at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. He posted bail on the assault and terrorizing charges, but is being held without bail on the probation violation, according to a jail employee.
He is due to appear in Lincoln County Superior Court at 8:30 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 2. His defense attorney, Andrew Dawson, declined comment.
A Class A crime, a felony, carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine under Maine law. A Class D crime, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
