BANGOR, Maine — A Utah man was arrested after he allegedly scuffled with a state police trooper who was trying to remove him from a breakdown lane on Interstate 95, officials said Thursday.
Walter Brown, 19, of Bountiful, Utah, was charged Thursday with criminal trespass and refusing to submit to arrest or detention after the alleged tussle, which drew four Bangor police and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department deputies to the Union Street area at about 1 p.m., police said.
Brown was being held at Penobscot County Jail on Thursday on a $250 cash bail, a jail spokesman said.
State Trooper Darren Vittem was on patrol in the Bangor area when a dispatcher relayed a 911 caller’s claim that a man with a duffel bag was walking along the interstate near the Hammond Street exit, Vittem said.
Vittem said he found Brown near the Union Street exit at about 1 p.m. and repeatedly told him to get into the police cruiser or leave the road, from which pedestrians are barred.
Brown ignored him, and the alleged struggle began after Vittem handcuffed Brown’s left wrist but refused to surrender his right, Vittem said.
“He was wearing two Carhartt jackets that covered up much of his wrist,” Vittem said Thursday. “He pulled away and we kept struggling back and forth. He would not really communicate at all. He just kept saying, ‘let me go. Let me go.’ ”
Two Bangor police officers and two sheriff’s deputies responded quickly to Vittem’s radio report of the struggle. When the first officer arrived, he and Vittem lowered Brown to the ground, Vittem said.
Brown, who is known to frequent the Lincoln area, said after his arrest that he was headed to Jackman, Vittem said.
“[Brown]’s got some medical issues,” Vittem said.
Jail workers were trying to arrange a psychological evaluation of Brown Thursday afternoon. If he makes bail, Brown is due to appear at the Penobscot Judicial Center Dec. 17. But if he does not make bail, Brown will appear in court Monday, officials said.