The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine (2024)

August 25, 1998

Publication:

The Bangor Daily Newsi

Location:

Bangor, Maine

Issue Date:

Tuesday, August 25, 1998

Page:

13

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Tuesday August 25 1998 INSIDE Maine Press MAINE DAY Obituaries B7 Weather B8 speaking invitation to former Boston Globe columniM B5 Two indicted in death of NH woman Pill -J ii r- mother called the police She Attorney Gen CONCORD NH not reported missing officially until Sept 3 Two days later police recovered some of her personal belong ings at a boarding bouse in Woman files suit against agencies Litigation alleges sexual harassment these two people who will suffer for the rest of their lives for what they have done It won't bring mv daughter back or my granddaughter mother back It is a very tragic situation" she said Portsmouth police also had contacted authorities in Killeen Texas about the possible connection between Pehowic and the 1980s murder of a prostitute there In the negotiated plea in June Pehowic admitted hie raped and assaulted his former girlfriend last November He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison though the judge would have preferred more McLaughlin said the charges were a result of a Portsmouth Somersworth Dover and state police investigation conviction A Strafford County grand jury handed up the indict menu last Thursday Acting on a Up from a Penobscot County Jail inmate investigators recovered Caswell's remains April 24 in a shallow grave in a wooded area located about Vi miles from the Lincoln exit of Interstate 95 The inmate reportedly denied involvement Caswell's killing but told police he knew where she was buried Caswell was last seen two years ago Sunday leaving a Portsmouth bar She was known to have a substance abuse problem and often would disappear for days Caswell had left her 8-year-old daughter with her mother and when she didn't return her eral John Kacavas would not comment on whether Caswell had been sexually abused He also would not say if Pehowic was a suspect in the death of Sheila Holmes of Bamngton whose partially clothed body was found in Dover in April 1990 Foster's Daily Democrat had said Pehowic was a suspect in that case Dorothy Caswell of Portsmouth the mother of the 35-year-old woman said she was aware that Pehowic would be indicted for her daughter's murder "It doesn't give me any relief because my daughter will never come back It's heartbreaking" said Caswell during a telephone interview Monday "We have already serv ing time in pnson have been indicted in the 1996 death of a Portsmouth woman the state attorney general said Monday Edward Pehowic 31 of Somer worth was charged with the first-degree murder of Carol Caswell Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said Pehowic is serving 10-20 years in state prison for unrelated rape and assault convictions Merrill Tompkins III 24 of Lincoln Maine was charged with hindering apprehension in connection with Caswell's death He was set for release Wednesday from the Penobscot County Jail in Maine on an unrelated second-degree assault Carol Caswell's remains were found in Lincoln Authorities accused Pehowic of drowning Caswell 35 in a Somer sworth river on or shortly after the day she disappeared Tompkins is accused of helping Pehowic transport the body to Maine By Nancy Garland Of the NEWS Staff BANGOR A former employee of a medical association affiliated I iS JBB a I rv swr-v with St Joseph Hospital has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court against her former employer and another organization Roberta Winchell of Bangor claims she was sexually harassed repeatedly by Arthur Blank former executive director of Northeast Medical Service Organization then was fired when she complained about Blank's alleged behavior She has sued Northeast MSO and Northland Consulting Group a separate organization that provided management services to Northeast MSO Seeking economic and noneco-nomic damages punitive damages and payment of her attorney's fees Winchell also wants to be reinstated to her job according to the lawsuit The document states she was fired 10 days after she made a complaint about the sexual harassment to leaders of Northeast MSO Until this year Northeast MSO was a service linking area doctors and physician assistants who maintain individual practices but pool expenses for a variety of administrative duties The organization still exists as a corporate entity but in January of this year a separate consolidation took place Sun-bury Primary Care now includes eight medical practices in the area that used to be under the managerial umbrella of Northeast MSO Winchell worked for eight months as human resources director for Northeast MSO She reported directly to Blank during most of her employment and claims he "specifically conditioned tangible job benefits on her submission to his unwelcome sexual advances and he repeatedly penalized her for refusing to submit to his advances" Attorney David Webbert representing Winchell and Frank McGuire representing Northeast MSO and the Northland Group declined to comment The lawsuit was filed in mid-July McGuire said Monday he has yet to be served with the papers although he said he went to the federal courthouse last week to personally pick up a copy of the litigation after receiving a call from a reporter See Lawsuit B6 Col 1 Department in Camden exonerated Consultant: Police complied with procedure during bust By Walter Griffin Of the NEWS Staff CAMDEN Outside investigations conducted by the Attorney General's Office and an independent law enforcement consultant have concluded that the police department followed accepted procedures during a controversial June drug bust The results of the investigation by consultant Bruce Buchanan of Carl Buchanan and Associates of Brewer were made public Monday by Town Attorney Terry Calderwood and Police Chief Terry Burgess Buchanan's findings were supported by Attorney General Investigator Brian McMaster Although the investigations exonerated the department's handling of the June 12 daylight raid of a Norwood Avenue apartment an instance of one officer directing obscene language toward a civilian was confirmed Calderwood declined to identify the officer but acknowledged that he was disciplined as a result of his breech of decorum "There was obscenity but that falls under the nature of a personnel misconduct type of allegation and cannot be discussed" Town Attorney Calderwood said Monday "Other than that we feel the investigation is concluded and don't contemplate taking any further steps beyond that" Arrested in the raid was David Clark 19 of Camden NJ whose connection to Maine was formed in his youth when he participated in the Cam-den-to-Camden program Camden-to-Camden exposes children from the inner city of Camden NJ to the rural beauty of the Maine coast Clark grew to become a counselor in the program made friends with a number of local families and returned to Camden Maine frequently Clark also apparently got involved in a few scrapes in New Jersey and Philadelphia He spent more than a year fh jail awaiting trial on a host of gang-related charges including attempted murder and weapons violations He was acquitted of all charges last September and moved to an apartment on Norwood Avenue a few months later Almost from the onset of Clark's arrival police received information linking him to peddling marijuana from his home Enough evidence was compiled to obtain a search warrant Armed with the warrant Camden officers Lt Phil Roberts Sgt Glenn Wakefield officers Michael Pierre and Patrick Allen and two Maine Drug Enforcement Agency undercover officers raided the apartment on a Friday afternoon in June Police were aware of Clark's criminal history and armed themselves in case of trouble Witnesses said the raid was conducted in swat-team fashion and involved breaking down doors See Camden B6 Col 3 Car strikes moose kills woman 50 A TOUCH OF GRAY This old barn on Mooers Road in Houlton is offset by colorful flowers that have been planted nearby (NEWS Photo by Wayne Brown) 2nd former dispatcher decides to sue Pittsfield Sodium deficiency suspected UMaine researcher zeroes in on cause of NE poultry deaths LITCHFIELD A Qaribou woman was killed in a collision with a moose on the Maine Turnpike early Monday the fourth fatality this year involving moose Donna Caron 50 was a passenger in a car driven by her husband said Stephen McCausland spokesman for the Department of Public Safety Their southbound vehicle struck the moose at about 5:10 am in Litchfield Mrs Caron was taken to Maine-General Medical Center in Augusta where she died Her husband Charles Caron 50 was not injured McCausland said the Carons' 1994 Mercury Sable hit a moose which went into the windshield The car slid into a guardrail after the impact Mrs Caron was a cook for the Caribou School Department and prepared the meals for the Meals on Wheels program She had worked for several years in that position according to her supervisor Louise Bray of Caribou "She will be sorely missed" Bray said Monday "She touched a lot of people's lives" The Carons were en route to Connecticut for a vacation Bray said that they were targeted for harassment because they were friends with the police chiefs ex-wife Ferris claimed Monday afternoon that the two sisters' complaints "are not isolated incidents" He said there has been "an ongoing pattern of abusive behavior" by Emery and although he has not been hired by anyone other than Neace and Dodge he said he has been approached by both current and former police department employees "People are attorney-shopping" Ferris said "The nonsense that was going on in this department and is still going on reads like a bad situation comedy" Both women worked as dispatchers in 1996 when Dodge was fired for undisclosed reasons and Neace See Pittsfield B6 Col 1 By Sharon Mack Of the NEWS Staff PITTSFIELD A second former police dispatcher a sister to the first one has filed a lawsuit against the town of Pittsfield in Somerset County Superior Court claiming she was defamed by the town's police chief Crystal Neace joined her sister Charlene Dodge last week in filing the lawsuit and luring the same attorney Charles Ferris of Waterville Neace's lawsuit is nearly identical to her sister's Both are claiming that Police Chief Steven Emery told others that the women were gossips troublemakers and poor reflections on the police department The sisters have both claimed By Jeff Tuttle Of the NEWS Staff ORONO Preliminary test results by a University of Maine researcher indicate a sodium deficiency in certain batches of feed was significant enough to cause the recent rash of poultry deaths in northern New England Dr Michael Opitz a veterinarian with the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension program said Monday the tests show the sodium content of the suspect feed was between one-tenth and one-third of normal levels "Salt is absolutely necessary for life" Opitz said from his laboratory at the university's Department of Plant Soil and Environmental Sciences "Such a deficiency would lead to the symptoms we've been seeing and while a salt deficiency may be a simple solution to the problem it's not something we would normally look for It's certainly not common" Since late June hundreds of small "backyard" poultry farmers in Maine New Hampshire and Vermont have reported the early demise of their flocks of newly purchased chicks The birds which include chickens turkeys pheasants ducks and geese suffered from similar symptoms including stunted growth and weakness before dying Opitz said Researchers at state universities in the three states have studied the birds and the feed on which they were raised to determine a cause of the high mortality rate which researchers estimate at between 50 and 75 percent of the chicks purchased by small poultry operations this summer While test results are still coining back from veterinary laboratories around the country researchers have focused their attention on a feed-related cause of the deaths citing the widespread nature of the mortality In July a vitamin deficiency in the birds' feed was the prime suspect in the deaths according to Opitz who said the newly discovered sodium deficiency likely was a precursor to the vitamin problem Opitz who has specialized in poultry biology for 35 years speculated that the birds would not eat enough of the feed they were given because they did not like the taste and See Poultry B6 Col 1.

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