BANGOR, Maine — A Bangor woman was charged after she sprayed Mace on a Levant man who was arguing with her brother Saturday night at the Bangor State Fair, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Monday.
Renee Paine, 30, also later sprayed the victim’s father, and both times she released the chemicals — designed to immobilize an attacker temporarily — without provocation, the sergeant said.
“They were arguing about something that happened over a year ago,” Edwards said. While her brother and the 20-year-old Levant man were yelling at each other, “unprovoked she sprayed him [the Levant man],” Edwards said.
Paine and her brother encountered the Levant man while he and a female friend were waiting in line to get on a ride. The Mace incident was reported about 9:45 p.m. Saturday.
While the victim was treated by Bangor Fire Department officials at a mobile command post set up at the fair, he called his father, who also was at the carnival, to tell him what had happened.
Police began searching the fairgrounds for Paine, who used her Mace a second time shortly after she ran into the father, who is 45 and also from Levant, Edwards said.
When the father approached Paine, “he got it,” the sergeant said.
Paine, who knows both men, sprayed them without warning, Edwards said.
“Two other people were inadvertently sprayed, decontaminated by Bangor rescue crews and released,” the sergeant said in a press release.
Paine was charged with criminal use of disabling chemicals. If convicted, she could be jailed for up to one year and fined up to $2,000.
In the face!
One evening I walked to a store that was six buildings away from my home to get a can of baby formula for my granddaughter when a man grabbed me and I laid the can right up side of his head and knocked him on his butt!! Now that’s how you protect your self!!
what a Paine.
Better mace than a gun .
That is what I was thinking…..
If every person that entered the Bangor Fair were subjected to a pat down I think mace would be among the least threatening of the weapons found.
Stay classy Bangor Fair. Stay classy.
LOL who has ever equated the word “classy” with the term “Bangor State Fair”? I mean really.
Once a state fair ceases to be truly agricultural the whole atmosphere changes.Maine has 26 fairs that run every year. Blue Hill, Skowhegan, Fryburg,Windsor, Union and all the others have such a warm and inviting thing going on every year.Bangor has none of that. I hope the folks running the Cross Insurance Center go out of their way to never schedule a high line event while the Bangor Fair is going on. Every event there should highight something positive about the greater Bangor area-the fair aint it.
Can you just go and buy Mace without a background check? Sheesh!
yes u can buy it without a background check. and even if they did do a background check on me i would have passed it. this mug shot is from about 10 yrs ago and it was for driving without a license which i lost for not paying a speeding ticket. that was the one and only time i have ever been arrested in my life
we need to ban high capacity mace.
it’s ridiculous that she could get 2 people at once!
she sprayed these men at 2 seperate times, the son was sprayed while having an arguement with her little brother… the father was then sprayed after hearing about the first altercation and walking trying to find her, well her found her alright
yes he did find me and had me blocked on a ride. i couldnt get off the ramp of the ride because of the father. he was screaming in my face and that is when i peppered sprayed him
My wife just mentioned for the first time ever I should get mace for her to keep in her pocketbook. Hmmmmm. I don’t know if I dare.
I know this woman and she is a wonderful person, friend & mother and I’m sure when this happened, it was very much provoked, but of course you only get what the other ppl have to say. Renee is a kind hearted person who wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose unless she thought someone was threatening to hurt her family/friend, and whether anyone was arguing over things that happened a year ago or 10 years ago, everyone knows as well as I do that things can get heated back up again. I love how BDN never gets the other side of the story, but that’s how it always is.. it’s quite ridiculous really.
So, why not just walk away from a confrontation? Is it neccessary to be packing Mace and spray someone if you don;t like them or what they have to say? Good thing she did not have a gun, just sayin’….. Good hearted people do not do things like this…..
Are you a woman, do you have children? Have you not ever been scared for that matter? maybe not, maybe you’re one of the total bad asses who isn’t scared of anything, who knows, but not all women are big and tough, and ya I would say it’s necessary to carry mace/pepper spray especially now with all the crazy bath salt users around walking into ppls homes or up to you on the street acting like lunatics. How do we know what really happened during this argument, were we there? NO. All we are getting is the story from the ppl who got sprayed, so automatically we assume that these are wonderful ppl, maybe a physical altercation was about to take place, maybe there is a long history of crap with them, who knows what was being said for that matter, threatening words can also be very unnerving and scary. Don’t always assume the aggressor isn’t also a victim. JUST SAYIN’!!
I am not a woman, but I do have children. Yes, I have been scared, and I do worry about the bath salt users, and other unstable people that I might encounter these days. Fathers are not all “Bad Asses”, nor are we “Big and Tough” as you stated. We are equally concerned about what goes on around us and our families.
Very simply, the article stated as follows:
” A Bangor woman was charged after she sprayed Mace on a Levant man who was arguing with her brother Saturday night at the Bangor State Fair, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Monday. Renee Paine, 30, also later sprayed the victim’s father, and both times she released the chemicals — designed to immobilize an attacker temporarily — without provocation, the sergeant said. “They were arguing about something that happened over a year ago,” Edwards said. While her brother and the 20-year-old Levant man were yelling at each other, “unprovoked she sprayed him [the Levant man],” Edwards said.”
A reasonable person might assume that the officer who was quoted might have had insight into what transpired, after interviewing the people involved. No, I was not there, and I do not have personal knowledge regarding what happened. I am making my statement based on what the officer said in his statement, as reported in the paper. Maybe you have personal knowledge, and can correct/rebut the officers statement? I never assume anything, but in this case the facts were presented and reported by others with some knowledge of what happened, can you say that as well? Just Sayin’…….
Wow, lol this cracks me up, ” a reasonable person might assume the officer who was quoted may have had insight to what transpired” ? Pretty sure the officer wasn’t there when it happened, but only after, it’s exactly as I said before…the officer got the story from the ppl who had gotten sprayed, of course they are going to tell the police they got sprayed unprovoked, it’s not like they’re going to say “Oh well we started all this sh&% with them and we have before also..”
@ pavint46 who asked in a previous comment–yes the 1st person she sprayed, has already assaulted her before, and the father had tried, and the police did nothing which is why she carried the pepper spray in the 1st place, this has has been going on for a long time.
I would be scared too, and Idk about anyone else, I’m not just going to stand there and wait for something else to happen again to me or my family, when something has already happened before.
THE STORY ISN’T FROM THE MEN SPRAYED, IT IS A P O L I C E R E P O R T, WITH WITNESSES INTERVIEWD, AND B O T H SIDES GIVING THERE STORY. the police then make their decission on which one sounds more believeable with the witnesses stories
LMAO, you don’t think that the authors can’t twist things? An article about a incident involving me was nothing but dramatized with stuff added in that WASN’T in any police report. Your beloved BDN journalists & Bangor PD officers aren’t so honest as you may think.
she can’t be too scared of bath salt users, she was at the fair with her brother ya know. Hes a salts user, and broke into and robbed peoples homes… any more exscuses you got on why she sprayed 2 innocent people with a disabling agent for NO apparent reason??
chances are u r prolly a duster urself “proudfrombangor”. How in anyway do u feel obligated to run your trap about our brother… My question is how does our brother using salts so u claim have nething to do with why she pepper sprayed these two idiots?? Hmm oh thats right it doesnt your just another person who got on here to try and sound tough and hide behind a name. Chances are your prolly someone who has issues with our brother or renee and i and your to scared to comment with your real name??? just saying thats my opinion.
Do we know if maybe the first person she maced had done something at an earlier time so that she felt threatened or if she knew that when he gets going he gets violent? And as for the dad, did he threatened her for macing his son when he ran into her? Just having a person yell at you is scary because they could have a knife or a gun and be willing to use it..
I dont exactly know who u r but i obviously do cause u know the entire background behind the story. so could u text me to let me know who u r please??
they didn’t get the mens side of the story either here, this is the story as written in the report by the bangor police dept. so if you have a problem with how the story was told, than bring it up with them. . . and i also know of her renee, and by NO MEANS is she a ” wonderful person” and honestly this story proves it, and her brother is just as much a tool as she is.. look it up for you self, search BDN for dustin soucier the stories will tell it all
quick to run it about people u claim you know… funny how not a single one of us know who ur cuz i bet we either have crap info on you or we could find it. But hey ur to scared to put ur self out on the spot……
Hey I know this woman and if she thought her family were threatened WHICH SHE DID she would do whatever she needed to do to protect herself and them!
If you can’t even use mace or pepper spray( my personal favorite is the big can for use on Grizzly bears) what can one use for protection?
Mace is intended to be used primarily when one has no other option. I’m sure the police will determine if that was the case here. Another choice might have been to seek out the help of the police if that was possible-any really needed. A year in Jail and a big fine are hardly worth it when leaving might have been for the best. Dropping charges will be diificult as the two unintended victims more than likely lost their sense of humor fairly quickly.
The use of Mace is “A reasonable amount of non deadly force.” Read Maine’s Affirmative Defense Law on Assault. Here’s the link: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/17-A/title17-Asec108.html
Another reason to just not have the Fair. Too many degenerants, too many problems, too many unsupervised kids fighting and getting in trouble. Paying 12.00 per person for the privaledge of seeing the garbage that goes there is a bit crazy as well.
That can also go for all sports to they have fights at all sporting events ban them to
so she protects herself from two confrontational men using a defence product exacly as it is designed to be used, and SHE could get fines and a year in jail??!! WTF??
Did you not read the article dude? She wasn’t ‘protecting’ herself at all! She sprayed these men UNPROVOKED. Do you know what UNPROVOKED means? Seriously?
Well, She stopped a fight between two boys which could have escalated into something more serious. Which means she “used a reasonably amount of non deadly force in defense of a third person.” (Maine Law) She was then “Confronted” by a relative of the immobilized person which is a crime in the State of Maine. She then felt her personal safety was at risk and was “forced” to use it again.
http://www.hydroclubusa.com/360.html
Just because the man said that it was unprovoked doesn’t mean that it was.
it wasn’t just a man saying it was unprovoked, it was a police officer, a firefighter that witnessed the incident, and multiple other witnesses
Were the authorities right there when it happened? Uhm, chances are NO, witnesses? With as many people at the fair & all the noise, you really think people are going to notice a altercation going on until it escalates to violence? No one probably realized it was going on until people started swinging & the mace was released. Get a reality check, the cops can’t monitor everyone 24/7 & people DO lie to the cops to keep themselves getting into trouble. There is no denying the fact that she used mace so with them saying it was unprovoked the cops didn’t have any evidence to show other wise. Lastly, how often does Bangor PD really do a half way decent job?
No police officers or firefighters witnesseds either of the incidents at all.
These 2 Men have threaten her and her Family before. Know the facts before Commenting. Nok didn’t do his homework!!!!!!
Nok is a she not a he. You need to do your own homework!
SHE was not provoked! She should get the year. She won’t though because she is a woman. Case will probably be dismissed. Now if it were you or me and we sprayed two women unprovoked? God help us…
Agreed
You should never spay a woman unless she has agreed that she should not breed.
Lol, oops.
You are absolutely right Steve. This case might be dismissed. The DA’s office NEVER EVER complies with Maine Rules of Criminal Procedure – Rule 16. (NOT 16A) which requires them to automatically provide discovery within 10 days of initial arraignment in class D and E cases only.
The DA’s office will intentionally violate this right and privilege on every instance so you have to make a request and pay for your discovery.
Okay Andy, you may be freakin’ F. Lee Bailey for all I know but if you don’t see the double standards nearly every day when it comes to gender bias here and everywhere else you are more like Ray Charles.
So she was sitting there, reading her Bible, when she was suddenly, unexpectedly accosted by two big strong men?
Oh look one of her friends has figured out how to use the interwebs.
You can’t use mace/pepper-spray to deflate a verbal argument between two other people. Thats not how that works.
Unprovoked is unprovoked. Do you know that that means that just words were exchanged? If they had attacked anyone physically, than all the power too her, but its still legal to argue in this country, for now…
Why waste the mace at fair keep that for the Friday night parties jello shots mace and love baby
This reporter is wrong in his opinion. The “father” approached Paine having full knowledge that she had just used pepper spray on his son. “Confronting” a person with Mal Intent, as the father had done, is a crime in the State of Maine and is subject to a Protection From Harassment Order.
She felt she was about to be attacked by the father of the person she had just immobilized. She was in fear for her safety and had every right to use it.
Read the Affirmative Defense Law for the State of Maine, Mr. Ricker.
Mace, not pepper spray.
Andy i dont know who u are either but maybe i should retain u as my lawyer. lol
the affirmative defense law does NOT apply to her in this instance as she was spraying someone with an immobilizing agent who was having an arguement that she was NOT apart of
Did you read the Statute where is says, “1. A
person is justified in using a reasonable degree of nondeadly force upon
another person in order to defend the person or a 3rd person from what
the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful,
nondeadly force by such other person,,,,”
The two boys were engaged in an unlawful argument. She defended her boyfriend whom she had a reasonable belief would become injured. <<see the period?
it was not my boyfriend it was my little brother and the fact that chad started this in front of the 4 small kids that were with us. if it would have turned into a fist fight then the kids could have gotten hurt in the middle of it. Thank u Andy for stating the law here for these people to see.
actually i was a part of this argument because it was started by chad in front of my 2 kids and niece and nephew so that makes it my business. and also im part of the situation because i was assaulted by chad once already a few months ago. but since u seem to know me so well then u would know the entire story and the entire situation.
http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2010/7/13/a89a8002-57b1-4545-99bb-4644932fdf1a.jpg
I feel bad for the two guys –anyone sprayed by mace would agree
I thought you couldn’t possess Mace in Maine…only pepper-spray? Has that law changed or was it not a law in the first place?
like i said before…why go to the bangor fair…you can go to the Hope House for pretty much the same thing without the rides
Took you an entire 3 minutes after your superawesome “how do you have sex w/ that thing” comment to come up w/this?
Quick…. switch web-browsers so you can ‘like’ your own comments. I mean someone has to…right?
Really? Thats the best you could come up with?
Thank u to those that r defending me on here even though i dont know who u are. And also yes i was assulted by chad and then had his father come after me a few days later. and the first incident happened a few mths ago and not over a yr ago. Two of my children plus my neice and nephew were with us when chad started the confrontation at the fair as well as the other issues the first time. and then chad, his father and three other people cornered me, my brother and my 8 yr old niece on a ride as were trying to get off it. his father was in my face and i felt my only defense was to pepper spray them (not at the same time but different times). chad has also purposly bumped into me at my childs school and i just let it go instead of doing something when it happened. and the first time i saw chads father at the fair he had nothing in his hands. then when they came to find me he had a motor cycle helmet in his hands which he swung at me after i pepper sprayed him. he only missed cause my brother put his arm out just in time to block it. and then when the cops were walking us to our vehicle cause we were kicked out and not them they were all waiting outside the fair grounds for us and the cops still never did anything to them.
2 sides to every story! Fact is momma, your daughter broke the law. That’s why she was arrested and charged! Did you previously file an assault report, against any of these men or had restraining orders issued? I feel for you, but Renee broke the law and she will answer for it! As for my personal opinion, it’s all childish behavior and EVERY ONE OF YOU, SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!!
david, mommapaine is renee, shes the one that broke the law my friend
actually im the one in this story. and i was not arrested like it said in the reports. i was given a summons and sent home. there were several reports filed against these people and nothing was done about it. and its not against the law to pepper spray people if u feel threatened as i did in this situation.
Call Ferdinand Slater, Atty./J.A.G.
from Ellsworth. He’s in the book.
Yeah,Ill bet you are a regular Johnny Depp?
Throw the book at her! Even if she only serves 6 months in jail for this assault, that should be plenty of time to reflect! She’s unhinged and should seek professional help, as well! Lucky, she didn’t have a taser, knife or a gun!
She is unhinged & needs to seek help for protecting herself? Wow, you must not get out much do you? Lets say she did do it because she is oh so crazy.. if she was truly off her rocker, don’t you think she would have used somthing more than mace or pepper spray? It’s not like she went all John Holmes at the fair, she protected herself from 2 men whom she felt threatened by. Whether they did try to assault her or not, point is, she felt threatened by them coming up to her period.
D-YIKES
I love how many people hold what the article says as 100% golden truth & undoubtable fact. People tell lies that go in police reports, journalists have a natural flare for dramatics, so anything they write they need it to be really worth publishing, so you don’t think they’re gonna add & twist to make a mundane incident news worthy? How many of you were there & witnessed it? Oh thats right NONE of you. Therefore you don’t know what did & didn’t happen, you’re just going based on the fact that the men said they didn’t provoke the “attack”. You’re all quite niaeve to think that people can’t lie to have somthing go the way they want or to get themselves out of it. Unless you were there maybe you should stop acting like you know what went on.
I think that everyone on here who believes this news report is unhinged….. people these two guys and friends of theres have attacked our family before. I almost lost my apartment because of it….. they are the unhinged ones i mean who starts a fiught with someone when they have their kids with them??? Really now who does that. Renee should not serve netime in jail for something so minor…. their is more intense and horrible things out there that dont make it in the news.
If someone came running up on me (that I had a previous physical altercation with) and my family (children were there) and I thought they were going to start some physical altercation I would do WHATEVER I felt was necessary to protect my family!