LINCOLN, Maine — A local man was arrested Saturday after trying to punch a police officer to keep him from confiscating license plates from a Jeep owned by the man’s daughter, police said Monday.
Mark Engell, 62, of Lincoln was charged Saturday with obstructing government administration, a Class D offense, and his daughter, Desiree Desrosier, 25, of Lincoln, was issued a summons for attaching false license plates to her vehicle.
Officers John Walsh and Andrew Scelso had stopped Desrosier about 10:25 a.m. on Manor Drive when Engell appeared and removed from the back of the Jeep one of the plates, which were registered to a Ford Explorer, Lincoln Police Department spokesman Detective Mark Fucile said.
Walsh said that police needed to take the plates as evidence, but Engell refused to return what he had grabbed, claiming it was private property even when the officers said that the state owns license plates, Fucile said.
After repeatedly warning Engell to cooperate, the officers started to take him into custody, Fucile said. Then Engell allegedly tried to punch Walsh and struggled with Walsh and Scelso before being handcuffed.
According to Maine’s criminal code, obstructing government administration occurs when a “person intentionally interferes by force, violence or intimidation or by any physical act with a public servant performing or purporting to perform an official function.”
It carries a sentence of as many as 364 days imprisonment and a $2,000 fine, according to the Maine General Statutes.
Engell and Desrosier are due in Lincoln District Court on Feb. 8, Fucile said.