ORONO, Maine — Management of a newly purchased apartment complex in Orono posted an online invitation to a pool party featuring music, food and raffles that drew hundreds of students and ended with personnel from several law enforcement agencies converging on the area Wednesday.
“We were aware of the event, which was discouraged,” Orono Police Chief Josh Ewing said Thursday in an email, referring to the party that was promoted as a marketing effort to attract tenants. “We had been told that extra security would be on hand, and that the gate would be monitored.”
Three people were arrested, including the University of Maine football team’s leading receiver, Micah Wright, at the complex recently renamed The Reserve at Orono, formerly known as The Grove. The Bangor Daily News initially reported students had organized the party.
A flier for The Reserve’s Maine Day party was posted on the complex’s Facebook page at noon Wednesday. It states there would be hourly gift card giveaways and $500 gift cards would be given to those who signed leases for the fall at the gathering.
“Happy Maine Day y’all!! Make sure you drop by from 4-8 pm for our pool party! We’ll have beach volleyball, can jam, raffles every hour and FREE FOOD!” The Reserve post states.
Even though the party was not scheduled to start until 4 p.m., management of the apartments called local police at around 3:30 p.m. asking them to disperse a crowd of 300 to 400 students and young people who had gathered, Ewing said.
Law enforcement personnel from University of Maine Public Safety, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, Maine State Police, Old Town and Veazie joined Orono officers at the student housing complex.
Two Orono police officers had assignments to be at the property “as a deterrent,” but problems arose because “the crowd was already gathering as the officers arrived, [and] no one was at the gate until well after our arrival,” Ewing said.
Three people were arrested, two from out of town who were charged with disorderly conduct and one resident of The Reserve who violated his bail conditions, Ewing said.
Kellen Bonnar, 22, of Topsham, and Wright, 20, of Newark, New Jersey, were arrested at around 4 p.m. for disorderly conduct. Marshall McLaughlin, 20, of Orono was arrested around 10 p.m. for violating bail conditions.
All three had been released from Penobscot County Jail in Bangor by noon Thursday, a jail official said.
The Reserve apartments are near the UMaine campus and were purchased earlier this year by Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC, a privately owned investment firm headquartered in Chicago. Harrison Street acquired North Carolina-based Campus Crest Communities Inc., owner of The Grove property and others across the country, for $1.9 billion on March 2.
A message left seeking comment about the Maine Day party from Harrison Street was not immediately returned Thursday.
Police have dealt with several parties at The Grove, including one on Maine Day 2015, that resulted in the town of Orono issuing The Grove a bill for $737.37 for law enforcement costs.
“We will be sending a bill for the entire response, to include all the agencies that assisted us,” Ewing said, referring to Wednesday’s incident.
“We will be meeting with the new management in the next few weeks, and will be revisiting the ordinance review and revision,” the Orono police chief said. “We plan to strengthen the language around large events and impose significant fines for violations.”
Wright has been interimly suspended from the football team because of alleged violations of the student-athlete code of conduct, according to university spokeswoman Margaret Nagle.
She said that with the arrest, three processes are set in motion: the criminal justice system, the UMaine student code of conduct and the UMaine Athletics student-athlete code of conduct.
The institution’s Student Conduct Office in the Division of Student Life is conducting an investigation.
Wright was a redshirt freshman wide receiver on the Black Bear football team last fall and led the team in several categories including receptions (61), yards-per-catch (13.4), touchdown catches (5), reception yards per game (74.4) and all-purpose yards per game (77.5).
He was a Colonial Athletic Association All-Conference second-team selection and was second in the league in receptions.
He also ran the ball three times for 34 yards.
BDN sports writer Larry Mahoney contributed to his report.