Holden

BRIDGTON — A Bridgton man was arrested Wednesday in connection with a home invasion that morning that left a well-known Bridgton couple attacked and beaten.

Robert and Margaret Macdonald, both 77, live at 16 Innisfree Lane on Long Lake. Bridgton Police responded to a 911 call from their home just after 8 a.m. July 10.

Police arrested Michael R. Holden of Bridgton. He was taken to Cumberland County Jail and charged with elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, burglary and possessing a scheduled drug.

Both Macdonalds were taken to Bridgton Hospital, and Margaret Macdonald was later taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland. Both were being treated Wednesday at MMC for serious head injuries. They were in fair condition late Wednesday night, a spokeswoman at Maine Medical Center said.

Robert Macdonald is the co-owner of two car dealerships, Macdonald Motors in Bridgton and Center Conway, New Hampshire.

Liston Eastman, the chairman of Bridgton’s Board of Selectmen, told the Portland Press Herald that the Macdonald family is well known throughout the community.

“They are a family that has been here for a long time, and they are well known,” Eastman said. He said the townspeople he has spoken with are “pretty shook up” by what appears to be an unprovoked assault.

The couple did not know Holden, police said. Holden lives about a mile away from the Macdonald home with his grandfather, they said. The Maine State Police are assisting Bridgton police with the investigation.

Holden has a criminal record dating to 2001, mostly for drug and property convictions. He has been charged with felonies, and some were alleged to be violent, but in most cases he pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor, according to the Portland Press Herald.

In his most recent serious arrest, Holden was charged in 2015 by Bridgton police with aggravated assault and domestic violence criminal threatening involving a firearm, but he later pleaded to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, according to criminal history records provided by the Maine State Bureau of Identification.