BANGOR, Maine — Last year, a federal judge warned a local man who admitted to destroying government property by driving through a closed gate at the Cutler Naval Support Activity installation that the consequences would be harsh if he committed a new crime.
“I will put you in jail in the blink of an eye and it won’t be for 45 days or time served,” U.S. District Judge John Woodcock told Richard Hughes, 30, of Glenburn on Oct. 14.
On Tuesday, Woodcock made good on that promise.
The judge revoked Hughes’ supervised release and sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison for violating it, according to information posted on the court system’s website. Hughes faced up to two years in prison for the revocation.
Hughes was arrested on Dec. 9 by Bangor police and charged in state court with domestic violence assault and terrorizing. A motion to revoke his supervised release was filed the next day in federal court.
He had been held without bail since his arrest awaiting the outcome of Friday’s hearing.
Hughes pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to domestic violence assault and was sentenced to 60 days in jail or time served on that charge, according to his attorney, Matthew Erickson of Brewer. In a plea agreement with the Penobscot County district attorney’s office, the terrorizing count was dismissed.
Woodcock on Tuesday ordered Hughes to be on supervised release for an additional 23 months after his release and to pay $6,222 in restitution to replace and install a new gate at the Cutler facility.
The original charge of destruction of government property stemmed from an incident in the early morning hours of June 5, 2015, when Hughes drove a truck owned by his employer, Hahnel Brothers Co. of Lewiston, through the gate on the Navy’s Cutler site after he had visited at least two bars.
Hughes was working at the site the previous day for Hahnel Brothers, which was contracted to repair a roof at a facility located at the former naval base, according to court documents. He and another employee, who has not been named, left work on June 4, 2015, in a company truck but returned in the early morning hours the next day and destroyed the gate.
When confronted about the incident, Hughes told police he was looking for a fishing hole.
The Navy’s very low frequency shore radio facility at Cutler still operates to transmit communications to submarines in the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean regions.