BELFAST, Maine — A former Waldo County restaurateur will spend two months in jail after being convicted of making a fake account on Facebook to stalk his estranged wife.
Steven Haver, 47, who now lives in Wells, pleaded guilty last week at Waldo County Superior Court to the charges of domestic violence stalking and violating a protective order. The then-owner of the Corner Restaurant in Liberty first came to the attention of police in July 2013 when he was arrested for domestic violence assault. He pleaded guilty to that charge two months later, according to court documents. Haver was arrested twice more that fall after contacting his estranged wife despite being prohibited from doing so.
“In 2013, Steven Haver’s life as he knew it came to an abrupt and painful end,” his attorney, Lisa Whittier of Augusta, wrote last month in a sentencing memorandum filed in Waldo County Superior Court. “His marriage of twenty five years was ending, and it was a very contentious divorce.”
However, according to a victim impact statement written by the estranged wife, Haver’s criminal actions that year were an escalation of a long pattern of verbal and emotional abuse in their relationship. She wrote that Haver spent only seven days in jail after pleading guilty to “slamming his head into my nose, taking the last and most important trust a woman should be able to count on, the ability to trust that he will never bring me harm.”
After Haver admitted at the beginning of November 2013 to violating the protection order, he was ordered to spend another month behind bars, the woman wrote. At the end of November, she received a friend request on Facebook from a woman named “Jessica Wall,” who said she was a former classmate.
Though she did not remember the name, she recognized many people on “Jessica Wall’s” friends list and agreed to the request.
“Jessica Wall” started sending her messages that were friendly at first but that soon became “personal and pressuring.”
“She pressured me to forgive Steve and give Steve another chance. She became angry when I didn’t respond or take her advice,” the estranged wife wrote.
The barrage of messages unnerved and frightened the woman. She contacted police to tell them she suspected Haver was behind them. Deputy Gerry Lincoln of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office wrote in his affidavit in support of Haver’s arrest that he saw that “Jessica Wall” had sent the estranged wife more than 80 messages over the course of nine days.
He tracked the account back to Haver and spoke to him last January.
“Steven … stated he was in a bad state of mind at the time and was still hopeful that he and [his wife] would get back together,” Lincoln wrote, adding that Haver told him he knew it was wrong.
Haver was sentenced last week to serve two months for class D domestic violence stalking, and spend two years on probation, with conditions that include having to complete a batterers’ intervention program. He also is forbidden to have contact with the victim.