PORTLAND — Bail will stay at $25,000 cash for a Windham man who is charged with manslaughter, a judge ruled Thursday.

The attorney for Joseph Green, 44, asked Justice Roland Cole to drop that amount to $15,000 so that Green could await his trial while living at his parents’ home. He has been in the Cumberland County Jail since he was arrested Sept. 7.

Cole said the original amount is fair to ensure public safety and the integrity of the judicial process.

“I think I set a bail that was balanced and I don’t intend to move it upward or downward,” Cole said during the hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court.

He asked the prosecutor and the defense lawyer to work together to bring the case to trial as soon as possible. “I want to move this along,” Cole said.

Green is charged in the shooting death of David Harmon, who authorities say had sneaked onto Green’s property to steal marijuana plants on Aug. 31.

According to court documents, Green told detectives that he shot at silhouettes among the pot plants growing on his property. He said he later discovered the body of Harmon, 40, on his land and dragged it some distance away from his home at 38 Roosevelt Trail.

Green also said the shooting happened just one day after he shot at people who were trying to steal his marijuana plants.

Jon Gale, Green’s attorney, said his client fully cooperated with investigators and gave them several interviews between the time he was identified as a suspect and his arrest a week later.

Green checked in with police daily during that period, Gale said, and after he was told over the phone that he would be arrested, he put on a suit and waited to be picked up.

“He’s not a flight risk whatsoever. He wants his day in court and he has lived in Maine all his life,” Gale argued during the hearing.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese, argued that the $25,000 cash bail is an appropriate amount for someone charged with manslaughter, especially in light of Green’s criminal record, which includes a conviction for cultivation of marijuana.

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com

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