ROCKLAND, Maine — A judge declined Friday to recuse himself from an upcoming trial of an Owls Head man accused of burglary, assault and tampering with a witness. The judge also denied a request to move the trial outside Knox County, even though the defendant said a 2013 investigation into a missing man, who later was found dead, will taint the jury.
Justice Daniel Billings made his rulings in Knox County Superior Court in the case against Steven E. Clarke, 50, who has been held at the Knox County Jail since November 2013 while awaiting trial.
While denying a request by Clarke to move the trial outside Knox County, Billings said he would reconsider the motion when jury selection occurs if there is difficulty in seating an impartial jury. The trial is expected to be held in March.
Clarke said media coverage of his cases have been extensive and linked him to the disappearance and later discovery of Kevin Crute’s body back in 2013. Crute disappeared nine days after Clarke was arrested and accused of breaking into Crute’s home in Cushing on May 12, 2013 and assaulting a woman in the home. Clarke was freed on bail that same day.
Crute’s body eventually was found in the woods about half a mile behind his home. The cause of his death was not immediately determined, but the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office eventually concluded the Crute, 31, died of an accidental overdose of methadone, amphetamine and methylphenidate.
Clarke argued the media coverage and the police investigation into Crute’s death would taint his upcoming jury. The Owls Head man said police went to the mobile home park where he lives and asked every neighbor whether they thought Clarke was capable of making someone disappear.
He said whenever he went to the store, people would point to him. Facebook comments became hysterical over the matter, he said, and police pulled him over 26 different times.
Justice Billings said potential jurors can be questioned about their knowledge of the Crute matter to exclude any of those Knox County residents. He said there are many people in Knox County who likely know nothing about that case.
Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody pointed out that a jury was able to be seated in Bangor last year for a triple homicide case that generated far more publicity.
Clarke also sought to have Billings step down as the trial judge because the judge had presided over a protective custody matter in 2012 involving Clarke. However, the judge said his dealings with Clarke in that case would not affect his ability to be fair in the upcoming trial. Billings said Clarke behaved appropriately during that earlier hearing.
Clarke was arrested in November 2013 and ordered held on $5,000 cash bail on charges of domestic violence assault, bail violation and tampering with a witness. In December 2013, Justice Jeffrey Hjelm ordered Clarke be held without bail after the district attorney’s office presented evidence that the defendant had made multiple telephone calls from jail to get witnesses to change their testimony.
According to an affidavit filed by Rockland police in connection with the November domestic assault case, an 18-year-old woman said she and Clarke dated for about six weeks, but she broke up with him about two weeks before because he had become controlling and was calling her bad names. The woman said when she met Clarke in Rockland after the break up, he grabbed her by the neck and swore at her, according to the affidavit.
Before his arrest that November, Clarke had been free on bail, awaiting trial on charges of aggravated criminal trespass, burglary and domestic violence assault related to the Crute case. Those charges remain and will be dealt with in the March trial as well.