BANGOR, Maine — A Levant man who allegedly arrived at an apartment on State Street in Brewer with a gun Friday night and then instigated a 12-hour standoff after refusing to talk to police remained at the Penobscot County Jail on Monday unable to post $25,000 cash bail.
Brandon Ogden, 32, made his first court appearance by videoconference before a judge at the Penobscot Judicial Center earlier Monday.
Ogden, who has a tattoo that covers most of his face, is charged with terrorizing and two counts of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, all Class C crimes, and criminal trespass, a Class D crime. The Penobscot County district attorney’s office did not charge him with creating a police standoff.
He was not asked to enter pleas to the charges because he has not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury. The grand jury next convenes on Feb. 24.
Ogden threatened the man and woman who live in the State Street apartment with a gun, James Aucoin, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, told the judge. Ogden then allegedly refused to come out when ordered to by police.
Aucoin asked that bail be set at $10,000.
Ogden told District Court Judge Gregory Campbell that he did not agree with the allegations outlined in the affidavit. After a discussion with the judge, Campbell set bail at $25,000.
The affidavit filed at the Bangor courthouse said that Ogden called the man, who described himself as a friend of Ogden’s.
“He said his marriage was over and [he] needed a place to stay for the night before he heads out in the morning,” the man wrote in his statement for Brewer police.
Once Ogden arrived, his behavior became erratic and he brandished a weapon, the man wrote.
“We sat on the couch and then he said he was hearing people talking in the basement and said they had mentioned that they were gonna shoot him,” the man wrote. “He then kept saying he could hear the voices telling me to grab him and that they are planning on getting him.
“He was acting very paranoid,” he continued. “[He] was say[ing] the Hells Angels were surrounding the building and that he was hearing the guys in the basement again saying that they were telling me to get him. I explained that there was no one in the basement. Then he started saying that he had made his peace with God and was ready to do whatever it takes if someone tries to hurt him.”
The couple was able to get out of the apartment and call police about midnight when the woman, who had been in the bedroom with the couple’s dog, pretended to be sick. The man told Ogden he was taking her to the hospital.
Police took Ogden into custody about noon Saturday. Officers recovered a 9 mm handgun with one round in the chamber but no magazine and found 47 bullets on the living room couch in the apartment, according to court documents.
Ogden did not make a statement to police as he was being driven from Brewer to the jail, according to a police report filed with the affidavit.
Ogden has two prior misdemeanor convictions in Maine for drunken driving in 2006 and 2008. Ogden served four days in jail and paid a $400 fine on the first conviction and was jailed for 14 days and fined $600 on the second, according to a criminal records check obtained from Maine State Bureau of Identification.
Ogden also has earlier misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana out of Schenectady, New York, according to documents filed Monday at the judicial center in Bangor.
Those convictions would not have prevented Ogden from possessing guns.
Ogden’s bail conditions include his not being at the State Street apartment, not having contact with the man and woman who live there, not possessing firearms or other dangerous weapons, and not using alcohol or illegal drugs. Campbell did not order that Ogden undergo a psychiatric evaluation, but he said that could be requested at a later time.
His next court date is April 6.
Ogden is the father of a 3-year-old girl who was shot in the neck at her Bald Mountain Drive residence, where a loaded gun was left within her reach in 2013, family members have said. The girl was paralyzed from the neck down, but at age 5, she is making progress — moving her arms and legs — and she and her two siblings were recently adopted by their grandparents.
If convicted on the Class C charges, Ogden faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.