ROCKLAND, Maine — The state is asking the court to order the forfeiture of $50,000 cash posted as bail earlier this year for a Friendship man who is accused of burning down a boathouse and fishing boat.
The bail forfeiture was requested Friday after James “Jamie” R. Simmons, 40, was arrested this week after allegedly driving while drunk. Simmons made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon in Rockland District Court on the new charges of criminal operating under the influence and two counts of violating a condition of release.
Judge Susan Sparaco ordered Simmons held without bail pending a hearing next month on a request by the district attorney’s office to revoke Simmons’ bail and have him forfeit the cash.
Simmons initially was arrested in June and charged — along with two other men — with arson in connection with a fire two years earlier in Waldoboro that destroyed a Quonset hut-style boathouse, owned by Donald Simmons, and a lobster boat inside. The victim and James Simmons are not related.
James Simmons was freed within a few days of his arrest after $50,000 cash was posted as bail.
On Wednesday, he was arrested again by Thomaston police after a citizen reported a vehicle weaving in traffic and going slow and then speeding up, according to an affidavit filed in court by police. Simmons continually failed to fully blow during an Intoxilyzer test and, when taken to the Knox County Jail, tried to evade a urine test by drinking some water and spitting it into the cup given to him to collect the urine, according to the affidavit.
Police also reported finding the muscle relaxant Clonazepam on him.
Simmons’ bail conditions on the arson charge required that he not commit any additional criminal activity and that he not possess drugs or consume alcohol.
Defense attorney Steven Peterson said after the hearing Friday he would fight the state’s effort to have Simmons bail revoked as well as its effort to have the cash forfeited to the state.
Also charged with arson along with Simmons were Fredrick A. Campbell, 30, of Friendship and Jeffrey Luce, 36, of Whitefield. All three were released from jail on bail with a few days of their arrests in June.
The boathouse fire was set because of a dispute over fishing territory, according to law enforcement officials.
Stored inside and also destroyed in the fire was a 36-foot Wayne Beal fiberglass lobster boat owned by Danny Reed Jr. of Friendship. Reed is paraplegic and had planned to go tuna fishing upon his release from a health care facility, according to court documents.
The fishing boat, valued at $150,000, had been paid off but was not insured, according to police. The building was valued at about $50,000.
James Simmons previously was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon for shooting a rifle in the direction of Donald Simmons at Wallace’s Lobster Wharf in Friendship on Dec. 4, 2011. In that case, James Simmons pleaded guilty to reduced charges of criminal threatening and reckless conduct and was sentenced in September 2012 to 364 days in jail with all but 45 days suspended.