ROCKLAND, Maine — A 50-year-old Casco man with 39 traffic convictions was arrested Saturday when he provided police with a false name, that of another man whose license also was under suspension.
Daniel J. Coyne was charged with operating after revocation as a habitual offender, violating a condition of release and attaching false plates.
Bail was set at $1,000 cash during a hearing Monday in 6th District Court in Rockland before Judge Susan Sparaco.
Police stopped Coyne, who was driving in South Thomaston on Saturday. Coyne provided police with an identification card and acted nervous, according to the report filed in court. When the name was checked, it was determined the person whose name he had given had a suspended driver’s license.
District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said Coyne had gotten the identification card from a person at the Serenity House, a halfway house in Portland for people with substance or mental health problems.
Coyne has 39 traffic convictions and has had his license suspended 23 times, Rushlau told the court.
Rushlau asked for bail to be set at $2,500 cash.
Attorney Barry Pretzel, who served as defense attorney of the day for people being held at the jail, asked for lower bail, noting that Coyne had never failed to appear for a court hearing. He also said Coyne had a job in Rockland and had family in southern Maine and was not a risk to flee.
Lower the bail to $1.00-why would he flee to another state where they might do something to keep him out of a car?
I sense your sarcasm, and I agree. Why the heck is this guy still driving? Why is he on the streets after that many convictions? Why are they just now after, what 29 or 39 or something driving arrests calling him a ‘habitual offender’? When I read that I shook my head, went back and read it again, cuz just couldnt believe my eyes!
I like the line in the story of ” defense attorney for the day for people being held at the jail” apparently his luck ran out today after 39 convictions and who knows how many actual arrests?
Confiscate his car and 20 years in jail should help him.
District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau Under Investigation for Misconduct, Criminal Actshttp://rushlau.blogspot.com/
With 39 convictions and 23 license suspentions, you’d think they would be piping daylight to him somewhere. What is wrong with the system? People get conviction after conviction and do no time, Joe Schmoo get busted for littering and spends years behind bars and fines to the moon and back. Ok that’s an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.
How can this guy be out of jail much less on the road with 39 traffic convictions. Earth to the legislature and lepage…How about a 2 year mandatory sentence once you reach your 20th traffic conviction???