BANGOR, Maine — A Macwahoc man has pleaded guilty to driving more than 100 mph and refusing to stop while taking his father, who had just been injured in a chainsaw accident, from their home through downtown Lincoln to Penobscot Valley Hospital in September 2016.
Justin Osgood, 33, agreed to pay a $350 fine and plead guilty to criminal speeding as part of a plea bargain reached with prosecutors at Bangor Judicial Center on Friday. Additional counts of driving to endanger and refusing to stop for police were dismissed, Assistant District Attorney Devon DeMarco said Tuesday.
“The plea deal reflects the fact that the defendant was faced with a difficult decision that day, and chose to drive at speeds over 100 mph through school zones and downtown areas,” DeMarco said in a statement released Tuesday. “It also reflects the fact that had this case gone to trial, the state would put forth evidence, namely the tape of a 911 call made from the car, that shows Mr. Osgood did not stop for an ambulance that was staged on his route because his father did not want to pay for its service.
“Luckily, Lincoln police officers were able to intercept Mr. Osgood and escort him the last few miles to the hospital, ensuring both the patient’s and Lincoln citizens’ safety that day,” DeMarco added.
Attempts to contact the Osgood family were not successful on Tuesday.
Osgood’s father, Dwight Osgood Sr., was discharged from Eastern Maine Medical Center of Bangor two days after the accident after having three layers of substantially more than 100 stitches sewn into his neck and the top of his chest. At the time, he said he was expected to make a full recovery.
The Osgoods maintained that in the heat of the moment, they believed they were doing the right thing — attempting to save the 68-year-old Osgood — by rushing him the 40 miles from their home to the hospital in Lincoln.
About halfway through the roughly 15-minute audio recording of the 911 call provided by DeMarco, the elder Osgood seems to say that he doesn’t want to stop for the ambulance, which had gone out to meet the Osgood family’s Subaru SUV on Route 2. Later in the audio, Justin Osgood also resists the idea, and says, “I’m not stopping.”
Police officer John Walsh and Detective Mark Fucile provided a lights-and-siren escort to the Osgoods when their attempts to pull them over failed near Mattanawcook Academy, less than five miles from the hospital.
On the audio, Dwight Osgood’s wife, Pamela Osgood, can be heard describing in a relatively calm voice to Penobscot Regional Communications Center dispatcher Brad Fitzgerald how her husband got injured.
The chainsaw, she said, “kicked back” on Dwight Osgood while he was cutting wood, striking him in the chin, neck and chest. She said she was applying pressure to the wound, and that he remained conscious, and that they were on their way to the hospital.
“We got our flashers on,” Pamela Osgood said to Fitzgerald.
“Lay on the horn Justin, lay on the horn,” she can be heard saying a couple of times.
“We got pressure on the wound,” she added to Fitzgerald, saying she was unsure whether the bleeding was controlled. Fitzgerald counseled her about the wound as the vehicle raced toward the hospital.
Fitzgerald also told her repeatedly that Justin Osgood’s driving was unsafe and that the ambulance had equipment on board that could help her husband before they got to the hospital.
Pamela Osgood pleaded with her son to stop for the ambulance when it eventually reached them. She didn’t seem to agree with his decision to keep driving.
Walsh said he could have pressed several other charges against Justin Osgood, including criminal speeding, illegal passing and refusing to stop for a law enforcement officer. Walsh opted to go with a lesser charge in light of the son’s belief that his father urgently needed medical treatment.
He said that with an ambulance and police there, the decision to speed through along Route 2 was unreasonable. A main road through Penobscot County, Route 2 runs by Mattanawcook Academy and Ella P. Burr School and the most densely packed and commercial area of Main Street before becoming Route 155, or Enfield Road, and reaching Penobscot Valley Hospital.
Under Maine state law, criminal speeding is defined as driving in excess of 95 mph. As a Class E misdemeanor, it carries a sentence of up to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.