WEST BATH

Woman in critical condition following two-car collision

A woman who was involved in a head-on collision in West Bath was transported to Maine Medical Center where she was listed in critical condition Tuesday night.

Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry identified the victim as 47-year-old Karen Jones of Bath.

Merry said witnesses told police that Jones’ 1999 Saab convertible was traveling east on the Old Brunswick Road on Tuesday morning when it drifted into the opposite lane.

Jones’ car hit a 1997 Ford Ranger pickup truck operated by Karlheinz Skelton, 45, of Bowdoinham. Skelton was taken to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police said it appears that Jones was not wearing a seatbelt when the collision occurred.

The cause of the accident, which was reported around 9:37 a.m., remains under investigation. Speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors.

SCARBOROUGH

Walmart greeter, 63, hurt by man without a receipt

Police have interviewed the man who tried to walk out of Walmart at 12:30 p.m. on July 19 with a shopping cart full of groceries, injuring a 63-year-old greeter when she asked for his receipt.

The man, shown in a security video wearing a pale blue shirt, plaid shorts and sneakers, was leaving the store with a cart full of groceries when the greeter noted that none of the groceries was bagged, police said.

When she asked to see the man’s receipt, he grabbed her wrist before fleeing the store, leaving the cart behind, police said. The woman suffered a minor injury, police said.

Scarborough police said the man has not been charged.

Police question suspect about photos up skirts

Scarborough police said they have interviewed the man whom several Walmart store customers allege used a miniature camera attached to his shoe to take pictures up women’s skirts on July 16.

The man, whose name is not being released, has not been charged and the investigation is ongoing, according to a posting on the police department’s Facebook page.

Several women reported the behavior to authorities.

SHIN POND

Four-year-old severely hurt when ATV rolls over on him

Authorities are investigating an ATV accident in northern Maine that severely injured a 4-year-old boy.

The warden service said the Searsport boy was operating the all-terrain vehicle near his grandfather’s home in Shin Pond about 6 p.m. on Monday. It appears he was driving up an incline when he rolled backwards and the ATV landed on him.

The boy’s father found him unconscious about 200 feet from the home. He was seen wearing a helmet earlier but the helmet was off when he was found.

The boy was taken by ambulance to Houlton Regional Hospital before he was flown to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor with what were possibly internal injuries.

No names were immediately released.

BANGOR

Former head pharmacist charged with growing pot

The former head pharmacist for the Penobscot Indian Nation’s defunct mail-order pharmacy has been charged with marijuana cultivation while facing sentencing for soliciting and taking kickbacks from Internet drug companies.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor say Reginald Gracie, 40, of Bowdoin was arrested July 24 after police found 61 marijuana plants on his property.

Gracie pleaded guilty in February to receiving more than $120,000 from six online companies in 2006 in return for ensuring the tribe’s mail-order pharmacy, known as PIN Rx, filled the prescriptions of the companies’ customers. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

The Bangor Daily News cited documents that quoted Gracie as saying he was growing marijuana for “entertainment and the science of it” and to give to someone suffering with cancer.

KITTERY

Shipyard upgrading gate in $6.2 million project

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is getting an improved security gate.

The $6.2 million project at the shipyard in Kittery will upgrade the second of two gates. It will have three inbound lanes, including one for trucks, two outbound lanes and a much larger guard booth. The current gate only has two lanes with a small guard house in between.

The project is scheduled to be finished by the spring of 2013.

Funding for the project was approved by Congress in fiscal year 2010.

The shipyard’s primary gate already incorporates protection measures planned for the second gate.

PORTLAND

Man admits defrauding L.L. Bean, Wright Express

A Brunswick man has pleaded guilty to defrauding two well-known Maine companies out of nearly half a million dollars.

Matthew LaForge pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Court records show that while employed at South Portland-based Wright Express from 2006-08, LaForge, 38, fraudulently billed and collected $231,000 from the company for marketing services supposedly provided by a company that he made up.

Prosecutors say LaForge used the same scheme to defraud Freeport-based L.L. Bean out of $220,000 while working there as a financial analyst from 2009-2011.

He faces up to 20 years on the two mail fraud charges and up to five years for tax evasion. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

Police looking for culprit who put lit fireworks in car

Portland police are looking for a person who tossed fireworks into a parked car on Cumberland Avenue last month.

Police got security video from the owner of the apartment building at 457 Cumberland Ave., near Avon Street, that shows someone putting a Roman candle through the partially open rear window of a 2009 Nissan Versa at 1:40 a.m. on July 17.

The video shows a succession of explosions in the car before the device burns itself out or is extinguished. Police were summoned by neighbors who heard the fireworks. Officers were in the neighborhood within two minutes, but found nothing suspicious.

The next morning, the car’s owner reported burn marks throughout the interior of the car. She said the damage might have been worse but a bottle of vinegar in the back seat ruptured and may have helped extinguish the fireworks, police said.

The video shows what appears to be a gray car parked alongside the Nissan for about five minutes. The driver can be seen standing outside smoking a cigarette and talking on a cellphone.

After the gray car’s passenger pushes the Roman candle through the Nissan’s rear window, the gray car pulls away quickly, bumping against the Nissan’s rear bumper, then going west on Cumberland Avenue.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 874-8533.

BELFAST

Defendant in fatal shooting of friend claims negligence

A 20-year-old man who’s on trial in the fatal shooting of his best friend was known to play a “scare game” in which the two friends pointed guns at each other to get a reaction.

A 911 tape played for jurors in the manslaughter trial Tuesday indicated that Luke Bryant of Knox tried to revive Tyler Seaney, 19, while Seaney’s girlfriend sobbed.

The Bangor Daily News said Bryant initially told police he picked up the .12-gauge shotgun to clean it but later said he dry-fired it to scare his friend as he emerged from the bathroom. The girlfriend told investigators she had seen them play the game in the past.

Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea told jurors that Bryant was negligent in handling the gun and there’s no evidence the shooting was intentional.