Two Friendship men are accused of sinking a lobster boat in the small fishing town’s harbor in December 2018.
Jason T. Weeks, 41, and Lyndon Harrington, 45, have each been charged with one count of aggravated criminal mischief and one count of theft for the sinking of the F/V Rotten Hog, according to court documents. Weeks was arrested July 1, and Harrington was arrested in May.
The arrests come after an investigation by the Maine Marine Patrol into the Dec. 16, 2018, sinking of the Rotten Hog. The vessel had been tied up at a wharf along Friendship harbor on the evening of Dec. 15, but when the boat’s owner returned the next morning, it was nowhere to be found.
Around 2 p.m. on Dec. 16, Marine Patrol located the 34-foot-long wooden boat submerged near an island outside the harbor. Only the antennas of the boat were visible, according to an affidavit filed in court by Maine Marine Patrol Officer John Luellen.
When the boat was brought ashore, investigators found several holes had been cut in its hull. Luellen wrote that the holes could not have been created by any type of weather or natural occurrence.
Video surveillance footage from several wharves along Friendship harbor show an unidentified individual in a skiff near the Rotten Hog early on the morning of Dec. 16. Surveillance then shows the Rotten Hog drifting away from the dock where it was tied up.
Harrington is also seen on the dock filling gas cans and going to his boat late on the night of Dec. 15.
In the affidavit, Luellen writes that markings on Harrington’s skiff match markings on the skiff that approached the Rotten Hog before it sank.
Additionally, a search of Harrington’s cellphone shows that he and Weeks planned to meet in the harbor and work together late on the night of Dec. 15 and early into the next morning.
Harrington was released from jail on $10,000 unsecured bail shortly after his arrest May 20. He appeared in Knox County Court on Monday morning but did not enter a plea on the charges, according to court documents.
Weeks was released from jail Monday on $5,000 cash bail, according to the Knox County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 15.