BELFAST, Maine — Two Glenburn men accused of impersonating police to steal from a Winterport marijuana grower last month remained jailed Friday after a judge set bail of $10,000 and $15,000.
Jeffrey Hurd, 47, and Scott Roberts, 35, made their initial appearance Friday afternoon at Belfast District Court by videoconference from Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. The two have been confined since turning themselves in Wednesday night at Waldo County Jail in Belfast.
Hurd and Roberts, dressed in prison uniforms, looked very different Friday than they did in the surveillance camera photos allegedly taken during the Sept. 21 robbery at a Winterport residence. In those photos, Hurd, Roberts and another man were wearing black SWAT team gear and a sheriff’s office uniform. Police allege that the men brandished a gun and had a verbal confrontation with the landowner, a medical marijuana patient, before grabbing an armful of marijuana plants and running away.
On Friday, Judge Patricia Worth read the two men the list of charges brought against them by the state: felony robbery, theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, impersonating a public servant and criminal trespass. She addressed Roberts first, saying hello and asking him how he was.
“Could be better,” Roberts replied as he sat at a table at the prison with a state-provided attorney of the day by his side.
During the brief first appearance, Roberts told the judge that he planned to apply for a state-provided defense attorney. Until that time, the judge set bail at $15,000 cash, which was requested by Waldo County Assistant District Attorney Neil McLean. His conditions of release, which Worth set during the hearing, include having no contact with Hurd or the Winterport man, not using or possessing drugs, being subject to random testing and being forbidden from going to a Winterport address.
After Roberts spoke with the judge, it was Hurd’s turn. The attorney for the day said that Hurd was looking into hiring his own defense attorney, and the state set bail at $10,000 for him. Otherwise, his bail conditions were the same as the ones set for Roberts.
The judge did not ask the defendants to offer a plea during their first appearance. Family members of Roberts and Hurd came from Glenburn to the Belfast District Court for the hearing but did not want to talk to the press.
Police have said that they know the identity of the third man involved in the theft, but he has not been named and remains at large.
Both Roberts and Hurd have criminal histories.
Roberts was convicted of aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs in March 2006, when he was sentenced to four years with all suspended and two years of probation. He also was found guilty of felony unlawful possession of scheduled drugs in February 2001, as well as theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and failure to appear after he bailed, according to the State Bureau of Identification.
Hurd was convicted in 2004 of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, for which he was fined $200, and he was convicted in 1991 of theft by receiving stolen property, for which he was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
According to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, troopers this week received more than three dozen tips from the public to identify Hurd and Roberts after officials released photos of what he called the “brazen robbery.” Until the men turned themselves in, they were considered to be armed and dangerous.