AUGUSTA — A Belgrade man who reportedly described himself as “a savage” and attempted to flee from police twice in Old Orchard Beach last week, including once by kicking out a cruiser window while the vehicle was in motion, was ordered held without bail Wednesday.
Jacob Uriah Hastings, 27, made an initial appearance at the Capital Judicial Center via video from the Kennebec County jail.
He was arrested Sept. 8 in Old Orchard by the Old Orchard Beach Police Department on warrants charging him with violating his probation on Kennebec County convictions for robbery.
Hastings’ hearing was brief, and William Baghdoyan, representing Hastings as lawyer of the day, asked that an attorney appointed in the case be allowed to argue bail.
Baghdoyan also said he thought Hastings faced new criminal charges from June 2016. However, neither the court clerk nor the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Carrie James, said they could find indications of pending charges.
Hastings, who was wearing an orange, button-up jail uniform, formally denied violating his probation, and another hearing was set for 2 p.m. Oct. 27.
Hastings said little except to tell the judge that he had no questions with regard to his rights or Wednesday’s hearing.
Court documents indicate Hastings faces charges of violating probation by committing aggravated criminal mischief, escape and refusing to submit to arrest or detention, all of which occurred on Sept. 8., 2016, in Old Orchard Beach.
The Department of Corrections Fugitive Investigation and Apprehension Team came from Augusta to arrest Hastings initially on the probation revocation charges.
An affidavit by Old Orchard Beach Police Officer Brian Pratt said Hastings was wanted by his probation officer for failing to report to probation, and that “an intelligence bulletin” about Hastings from the Maine Information and Analysis Center indicated Hastings was “a violent offender, a known member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and has committed a robbery and is a suspect in an unlawful sexual contact case involving a child under the age of 12. The report also states Mr. Hastings has threatened to kill as many police officers as he can.”
Police staked out a rental home at 42 Milliken St. near Hastings’ vehicle and attempted to negotiate to get Hastings to come out of the house. Instead, Pratt wrote, the suspect identified as Hastings jumped a tall barbed-wire fence and ran off. Bystanders pointed him out to police, and one helped two officers subdue Hastings. They put two sets of handcuffs on him, Pratt said.
En route to the police department, Pratt said Hastings requested that Pratt open the cruiser window because of the heat. Pratt rolled the cruiser window down half an inch.
Pratt’s affidavit says Hastings then broke the rear passenger window leaving shattered glass on the inside.
Pratt wrote that as he radioed to dispatchers about that, “Mr. Hastings was able to climb through the shattered window of my cruiser while my cruiser was still in motion and proceeded to run down Saco Avenue.”
Pratt used his Taser on Hastings, and Old Orchard Beach Police Cpl. Joshua Robbins, who was transporting another prisoner nearby, assisted Pratt and resecured the handcuffs behind Hastings’ back. Robbins reported that Hastings said, “I’m a savage; you have to treat me like such.”
Hastings was taken in the police van to Maine Medical Center for treatment and then taken to the York County jail.
On the new probation revocation charges against Hastings, a probation officer said the remainder of the suspended sentence on the robbery convictions be served. “This will be Mr. Hastings’ fifth probation revocation and (he) has demonstrated that he is unsafe in the community and is unable to abide by probation conditions.”
The officer also said Hastings had quit his job with a construction contractor in Augusta.
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