BANGOR, Maine — The man who was shot in the face during a standoff with police on June 1 in Ellsworth refused to enter a plea on a gun charge Wednesday at his arraignment in U.S. District Court.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison entered a not-guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm on behalf of Jeffrey Paul Barnard, 50, of Ellsworth.
Entering a plea wasn’t the only thing Barnard declined to do Wednesday. He also refused to get dressed when U.S. marshals arrived at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison, where he has been held without bail for six months, to bring him to federal court on the third floor of the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor.
Barnard was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair by marshals. He was wearing what appeared to be a green restraint jacket, which covered his torso.
Barnard’s lap and legs were covered by a cloth or light blanket. His arms and right foot — his left leg below the knee was amputated after an injury at the Cumberland County Jail in 2010 — were bare. His hands were cuffed in front of him, but his ankles were not shackled. Defendants usually are brought into court with their hands cuffed behind their backs and their ankles shackled. Once at the defense table, handcuffs are removed for the court proceeding.
For most of the short hearing, Barnard sat with his head cradled in his right hand next to his attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor. Silverstein asked that the hearing be delayed because his client was suffering from a severe headache and was unable to concentrate. Nivison refused because the arraignment had been continued at least twice previously.
“Given Mr. Barnard’s lack of cooperation on more than one occasion, we are going to go forward,” the judge said. “No medical information has been submitted to suggest that there is a health-related issue that would keep us from going forward.”
Shortly before Barnard refused to enter a plea, he told Nivison he was “being railroaded.”
Barnard also said he wanted to fire Silverstein, who is his third court-appointed attorney since he was charged in federal court on June 19 and arrested the next day. Nivison refused to do that. The judge also said Barnard had been found competent to stand trial.
The judge set Dec. 31 as the deadline for motions in the case to be filed. He also tentatively set Barnard’s trial for Feb. 3.
Silverstein said those dates most likely will be pushed into next year.
At the end of the hearing, Barnard apologized to the court.
“I’m sorry for the way I acted,” he said. “My head is just pounding.”
Barnard was shot in the face by Maine State Police Trooper Scott Duff on the morning of June 1, after a lengthy standoff with police that included Barnard holding a .22-caliber rifle, threatening to blow up his camper with a can of gasoline and throwing a Molotov cocktail-type explosive device, Ellsworth police Lt. Harold Page said in June.
The Maine attorney general’s office found the shooting justified earlier this month.
“Officers recovered a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle with a loaded magazine and a round in the chamber” from inside Barnard’s camper, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court on June 19 by Special Agent Tyler Leighton of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “They also found 70 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition, spent .22-caliber shell casings and a Molotov cocktail-type explosive device.”
The standoff was precipitated when police issued a criminal threatening summons to Barnard on May 30 and served him with a protection order, Page has said.
The landowner of 303 North St., where Barnard and his wife lived in a camper, then complained to police about 8 a.m. May 31 that Barnard had stolen the keys to a tractor. Officers went to the scene to investigate, and the confrontation with Barnard began immediately, Page said.
If convicted, Barnard faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Vicki Barnard, the defendant’s wife, contacted the Bangor Daily News Wednesday morning to dispute the attorney general’s report that declared the June 1 shooting of her husband was justified. She said that the official police version of what happened during the standoff is “a lie” and that police are “liars.” She said law enforcement officers have singled her husband out because he challenges them when they don’t tell the truth.
“I was in the trailer with him [during the standoff],” Barnard said. “They could have shot him in the arm [instead].”
Bangor Daily News reporter Bill Trotter contributed to this story.