DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A Milo woman was sentenced Monday to nine months in jail for a variety of charges resulting from four separate incidents in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties last year.
Casey Cross, 24, also was ordered to pay more than $2,500 in fines and had her driver’s license suspended, District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, who serves both counties, said Tuesday.
Cross is being held at Penobscot County Jail, according to the jail’s online inmate list. She was convicted of four counts of possession of controlled drugs — two of those Class C felonies — as well as two counts of obstructing justice and one count each of forgery, perjury, driving under the influence and violating bail conditions.
The charges stem from incidents in August, September and November of last year, according to Almy.
The first occurred in Milo on Aug. 30, when a woman who resides in town called 911 to report Cross had been following her through town in her car. Cross then pulled in front of the woman and blocked her from going forward, then attacked her, Almy said.
While the victim was calling 911, Cross grabbed her phone, ripped it away and punched the victim three or four times in the face, leaving scratches on her neck and face, Almy said.
Almy said the victim was 7½ months pregnant at the time. He said Cross told Milo police she did not assault the victim but did rip the phone cord from the victim’s vehicle.
On Sept. 3, while Cross was out on bail for that episode and subject to conditions of release, she was pulled over by police after the vehicle she was driving crossed the center line and struck an oncoming vehicle, Almy said.
Almy said Cross admitted to drinking and being on prescription drugs. He said Cross was found to be in possession of butane honey oil, a concentrated form of marijuana.
The third incident led to charges happened about 5 a.m. on Nov. 6, when Maine State Police Trooper Chris Cookson was called to Alton for a vehicle that went off of Route 16.
When Cookson arrived, he found Cross and a passenger near the vehicle, Almy said. He said Cross claimed she went off the road because she swerved to avoid a deer.
“While Trooper Cookson was talking to [Cross], her answers to his questions did not make sense,” Almy said. “Her physical actions suggested impairment and the physical evidence at the scene was inconsistent with what [Cross] said happened about swerving to avoid hitting a deer.”
Cookson learned Cross was out on bail for OUI and driving to endanger and as such was subject to search. When he conducted the search, Cross tried to avoid giving up a metal container, Almy said.
Cookson found between 20 and 30 pills in Cross’s purse, Almy said. He said one of the pills was oxycodone and the others included morphine and Dilaudid.
After the trooper arrested Cross, handcuffed her and put her in his cruiser, Cross locked the door from the inside and lunged for the illegal drugs that had been seized from her and placed on the dashboard, Almy said.
“A struggle ensued, and [Cross] got the pills in her mouth and began swallowing them,” Almy said.
Cross tried to resist arrest, but Cookson eventually got her under control and took her to a Bangor hospital for medical treatment.
Once at the hospital, police identified the other pills as hydroxyzine, cyclobenzaprine and Clonidine, Almy said, adding Cross also had $1,265 in cash and $39 in dollar coins on her person.
The final incident took place Nov. 24, when the state filed a motion to revoke Cross’s bail in Piscataquis County court and the judge held a hearing on the motion, Almy said.
During the hearing, Cross insisted on testifying under oath, Almy said. She testified she never locked Cookson’s cruiser’s doors and denied swallowing the pills that were in the bag on the cruiser dashboard, he said.
The state, however, had Cookson’s eyewitness testimony as well as a tow-truck driver who could corroborate some of what the defendant did, Almy said, adding there also was cruiser camera video and audio of some of those events.