WISCASSET, Maine — A 44-year-old Waldoboro man was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison after he pleaded to lesser criminal charges in a case where a man said he was held against his will for a week, beaten and threatened with death.
Russell W. Hardin pleaded guilty in Lincoln County Superior Court to trafficking in cocaine and no contest to felony theft and terrorizing. Charges of kidnapping, elevated aggravated assault, robbery and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon were dismissed.
A no contest plea results in a conviction but allows the defendant to contest the allegations in any civil matter. Defense attorney Ben Tucker said his client knows he could have been found guilty at a trial but that he disputed some of the allegations about the theft and terrorizing charges.
The plea agreement reached with the Maine attorney general’s office on the drug charge called for a sentence of six years in prison with all but 18 months suspended, three years probation and a $400 fine. The district attorney’s office handled the non-drug charges and agreed to lesser concurrent sentences.
The prosecutor said the district attorney’s office had tried to contact the victim but got no response back on the sentence that was being recommended.
Hardin and two co-defendants have been held since their arrests April 15 following a raid at the Reef Road home in Waldoboro.
The grand jury in Lincoln County issued the indictments May 12 against Andonis Morel Tavarez, 18, of Waldoboro and formerly of New York; Shane R. Jones, 38, of South Thomaston; and Hardin of Waldoboro. They were each charged with kidnapping, elevated aggravated assault, robbery, theft, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and terrorizing.
The indictment alleges Hardin threatened the male victim with a shotgun. Tavarez is alleged to have threatened the victim with a knife. And Jones is alleged to have threatened the victim with a propane tank.
The police report filed in court by the Waldoboro Police Department states that the offenses occurred from March 23 through March 31. The victim was not from the area and was a passenger in a car that broke down on Wagner Bridge Road in Waldoboro. The vehicle was towed, and the driver said he knew some people who lived at the Reef Road home.
While there, the occupants would not let him leave and made him do chores. The victim said he was asked if he would help deal drugs for them, according to the affidavit. The victim refused and he was accused of being a “cop or FBI.” He was then beaten on multiple occasions. They also stole his belongings including his cellphone, a laptop and clothes.
The victim said on one of the days at the house, he awoke to a shotgun pointed at his face by Hardin, a pistol aimed at him by someone called “Skinny,” a propane tank held by a Shane, and a breaker bar held by a Lulu, according to the affidavit. He said Hardin, Skinny and Shane started beating him from all sides. They then dragged him to the back door and discussed how they might kill him and dispose of his body, according to the police report.
They then confined him in a back-room addition and held him in a chair and beat him intermittently over the next two days.
Eventually, Shane came to get him and told him to get out. The victim left and went to MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta. The hospital contacted police at the victim’s request and he gave a statement to an officer.
The victim said he witnessed drug sales occurring at the house and saw a couple assaulted.
In the early morning hours of April 15, the Waldoboro Police Department, with assistance from the Maine State Police tactical team, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Maine Warden Service, executed a search warrant at the Reef Road home based on the kidnapping investigation.
Police said as a result of a search warrant subsequently executed there, Hardin, Jones and Tavarez were arrested for the kidnapping. Lauren Elaine Curtis, 26, of Tenants Harbor was arrested for kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, criminal threatening and theft.
Curtis was not indicted as part of the May grand jury, according to the court.
Other people were arrested as part of the drug investigation.
Glenn A. Hardin, 72, was charged for outstanding unrelated warrants. He is the owner of the house and father of Russell Hardin. A defense attorney told the court earlier this year that the older Hardin suffers from dementia. Yendy Zenzof Rodriguez, 25, of Massachusetts and Tavarez were charged for aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs and two charges of unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs.
Seized at the house were 66 grams of methamphetamine, 48 grams of crack cocaine, 67 grams of fentanyl and about $4,500 in cash.
Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody told the court at the younger Hardin’s hearing on Sept. 30 that police had received information beginning in January that drug trafficking was occurring out of the Reef Road house and that Hardin was allowing two out-of-state drug dealers to stay at the home.
Tavarez is represented by attorney Andrew Wright of Brunswick. Jones is represented by attorney David Paris of Bath. Curtis is represented by attorney Benjamin Hutchinson of Portland.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.