ROCKLAND, Maine — A 69-year-old man accused of trying to kill his wife by pushing her off Maiden Cliff in Camden last year has asked a judge to throw out the charges, claiming the prosecution improperly obtained his medical records.
Charles R. Black is charged with attempted murder, two counts of elevated aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of domestic violence assault. Black has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm listened to arguments Wednesday in Knox County Superior Court from defense attorney Walter McKee and District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau in the case.
McKee is challenging the district attorney’s office decision to obtain 540 pages of Black’s medical records with a search warrant. The defense attorney said medical records are confidential and that there is a separate procedure allowed for the prosecution to seek such records, which was not followed. He said that the defense was not given an opportunity to object to the seizure of the medical records as is allowed by the procedure he referenced.
As such, McKee has asked Hjelm to dismiss the charges or, if not, to exclude anything in the records from a potential future trial.
Hjelm questioned the prosecutor on why these records were not protected from review by the state as are correspondence between an attorney and a client. Rushlau said that the client/attorney privilege is so special that it has greater protection.
The prosecutor said it was important to get Black’s medical records to see what happened to him during the April 7, 2011, incident. Rushlau said neither he nor any assistant district attorney has looked at the records. The only employee who has is the department’s investigator.
According to police reports filed in court to obtain an arrest warrant last year, the alleged offenses occurred at Maiden Cliff atop Mount Megunticook. The couple had lived in Camden but Charles Black has been barred from the residence and is living in Rockland since his arrest.
The state claims Black struck his wife, Lisa, one or more times in the head with a rock, dragged her body to the edge of the cliff and pushed her off the mountain. Black told police he had passed out and fallen forward, striking the back of his wife’s head with his head, according to the police report.
Lisa Black fell a short distance, but then got up and managed to make it down to the bottom of the mountain, where she was spotted by a passing motorist. She was taken to the hospital.
Charles Black was found injured after a subsequent search. He was arrested a few days later after he was released from Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
His wife recently had inherited $4 million and she told police that her husband had been taking her money without her permission, according to police reports. The wife also maintained that Charles Black had been having an online affair with a former girlfriend from Arizona.
He was indicted in July 2011.
The prosecution also has maintained that Black attempted to injure his wife on March 17 and March 24, 2011. In one of those earlier incidents, according to police reports, Charles Black climbed a ladder to the couple’s attic. When his wife was on the ladder, he fell on her with all his weight and later claimed he had passed out, according to the report. In the other incident, the couple was on Mount Battie and she was hit from behind by her husband. He claimed to her that he had passed out in that instance as well, according to police.
Dirtbag
Nothing like the fainting Old Goat defense. Chuck him off a cliff.
“fainting Old Goat defense”……LMAO!!!!!
Put him in his Mini Cooper and push them both off a cliff.
She did! Ha! He got hurt. Good for her she pulled him down after he pushed her although he did not fall as far as she did.
If I was going to prison for attempted murder I would want my charges dropped. Heck I bet alot of the inmates in Warren want their charges dropped also.
L I A R !!!!!!
Dude. what’s with all the passing out? Does he suffer from that old ailment “the vapors”?
He sounds like he has much more nerve than brains. Extra credit for persistence, though. Time for his wife to “dump the chump”.
Hmmmm. An “online affair”. Is that like hugging and kissing a flat chested monitor screen?.
Not that it makes it any different, haha, but if I remember correctly from past articles, it was online communication with one of his real life exes which means a meeting may not have been far-fetched, whether it has happened yet or not, or if it ever would happen we don’t know but that probably ticked off the wife even more that it was someone who had a real history with her husband.
How many more chances is this woman going to give him to kill her?
Hopefully she has hired a fulltime security guard and has moved out of the area for her own safety.
Surprised he didn’t pass out in court and hit his attorney.
Sure. I pass out a lot but that doesn’t stop me from climbing ladders and mountains. I like to make sure there is another person below me to break my fall.
Then you should avoid the Precipice Trail, unless your wife is with you.
I don’t have a wife. I’m looking for one. She has to be wealthy and enjoy rock climbing.
Eeee….this is such an odd case! I can definitely see and understand both sides of opinions. I mean, it seems the passing out and causing injury to his wife has happened way too often for it to just be a coincidence but at the same time, he is an older gentleman who knows what his health is at this point. Also, wouldn’t falling from an attic and landing with ALL of your body weight be an extreme way to try to hurt someone. I’m not a violent person but if I wanted to hurt someone I can’t imagine putting myself at such risk. Also, he was taking money and having an online affair….wouldn’t that be motives for the wife? Interesting case here…
oh one of those imvu online love affairs
Seems like if he keeps fainting and hurting his wife, someone needs to look at the medical records; especially a doctor. Funny that he faints only when the wife is around. that is the strange part.
Not approving or disapproving either side of this story, but I am guessing he either doesn’t faint when she is not in harm’s way, or she didn’t mention the times he fainted when she was NOT around.
She needs to cut off his access to her inheritance. I can’t fathom how she would let him have access to it in the first place.
I know, but it may be too late. One way or another he got into a position where at least some of her assets became either jointly owned or marital assets of some kind, and I think he’s actually using his interest in those assets to secure his bail – in effect, using what should be considered the victim’s property for the defendant’s bail. I think that could have been prevented had she retained counsel early on to protect her interests.
Wonder how often he passed out before her inheritance?
Of course he does. Creep!
Crazy story, I remember reading about how the judge let this guy go back to Arizona a few months ago while he was free on bail to “visit relatives”. Guess, you could call an “ex-wife” a relative? He came right back to Maine though, guess he is hoping the current wife forgives him and maybe he’ll get a bit of cash somehow? Personally, I guess if I’d inherited 4 million dollars and my husband had tried to kill me a couple of times over a few week period I wouldn’t be hiking up mountains with steep cliffs with him ever again, I’d be divorcing him and not looking back.
I was thinking that, too! If he had tried to injure her so many times in the past then why would you hike up a mountain with him?? This whole case is very interesting on both sides.
???
I wonder if he will faint in prison…Bubba will break his fall, his neck, his arm, his leg, etc…etc
Let her push him off Maiden’s Cliff and then they will be all square. No trial. No muss. No fuss.
Why hasn’t this gone to court yet?
I think its amazing that someone in this state can inherit such a large amount. I am assuming she isnt originally from here because I cant imagine even a family member being able to make that much let alone save that much living and working in this state.
I hope he didnt spend it all and this lady has enough for the rest of her life and thankfully he did not get away with killing this woman. and she made it off that cliff to get help. I wish her all the best!
Everybody who’s accused of a crime wants the charges dropped, chief. The trick is to go to trial and be found not guilty.
Let’s hope Attorney McKee is wrong for the victim’s sake and that the prosecution had the legal right to obtain medical records through the search warrant process; however, I have a feeling McKee knows what he is talking about and either this case will be dismissed or the prosecution will be precluded from referencing or otherwise utilizing those medical records, which will likely negatively impact the State’s ability to effectively prosecute the matter and possibly even result in a finding of not guilty.
Oh my dear I feel so faint, might be my blood sugar acting up again and again and again.
Lets take Mr Black back to the scene of the alleged crime and give him a little nudge—
I think if anything should be dropped, it should be him.
“Man accused of pushing wife off Camden cliff wants charges dropped” How’s it feel to want?
Let me see if I get this straight. The prosecutor illegally got private medical records of a defendant and in addition some judge actually signed off on that illegal warrant? What
would happen if anyone not a prosecutor or judge did something that illegal? Are these people royalty or above the law? Why isn’t judge Hjelm referring the matter to the attorney general or ther FBI?
What can possibly be a defense for this prosecutor’s actions? What? He didn’t know the law?
The prosecutor and some judge who signed that warrant may have committed a crime here against that accused man. A fair trial might be impossible now and the charges may need to be dropped…that is if anyone cares about that pesky Constitution and their own Rights more than they care about seeing some old guy get prison just because his now rich wife wants it so.
And who’s to say she didn’t want him out of the way for that money and a new life? And
speaking of motives, wouldn’t this man get some of this money anyway simply by divorcing her instead of clearly risking his own life in a silly attempts to kill her for it? The whole case seems weak and fishy.
If his defense is that he passes out then wouldn’t the prosecutors have a right to see his medical records?
It’s not that they don’t have the right, it’s the way they went about it.