ROCKLAND, Maine — A judge rejected a request Thursday to drop charges against an Owls Head man who claims he has been deprived of a speedy trial on charges that date to May 2013.
Pointing out that Steven E. Clarke is on his fourth appointed defense attorney, the judge handling the case warned Clarke that the delays and changes in counsel could not go on indefinitely.
“The defendant should be aware that, while he has a right to court-appointed counsel, he does not have an unlimited right to court-appointed counsel,” Justice Daniel Billings said in paperwork filed in court.
Clarke was in Knox County Unified Court on Thursday seeking to have criminal charges dismissed. In the pending case, the Owls Head man first was arrested and released on bail in May 2013 on charges of aggravated criminal trespass, burglary and domestic violence assault. But he has been held in jail since November 2013, when he was arrested again on charges of domestic violence assault and tampering with a witness.
Clarke has a lengthy criminal record that dates to 2003, when he escaped from the Knox County Courthouse while in custody on a domestic violence charge after a door to the holding room was left unlocked. He later was captured and while in court for a bail hearing in April 2003, he attacked Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald. Clarke was convicted of assault in that case as well as another involving assault on an officer.
In October 2012, Clarke was sentenced to another nine months and one day in jail for threatening to kill a group of people in downtown Rockland.
Clarke’s first attorney on the pending charges was Roger Hurley, who withdrew during the middle of a January 2014 hearing on whether Clarke had tampered with a witness by making telephone calls from the Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan to friends of the victim.
Hurley said he had reached an impasse with Clarke over the defense strategy. Hurley said he would not allow himself to degrade the judicial process but did not specify the disagreement with Clarke.
Attorney Christopher MacLean then was appointed but withdrew shortly afterward, citing an unspecified “conflict.”
Attorney Thomas Shehan withdrew from the case Thursday citing breakdowns in communications with Clarke and with the attorney/client relationship.
Attorney Lynn Madison was representing Clarke at Thursday’s hearing although Clarke repeatedly spoke directly to the judge who advised him to use his attorney.
“You have to decide whether you want an attorney or will represent yourself,” Billings said.
Clarke said the departure of his lawyers was not his fault and that they decided not to represent him anymore. His trial could be held in July.