OAKLAND — A woman and her boyfriend, both arrested in separate incidents over the weekend, each drew additional charges because they acted up after being detained, police said.

Police said the woman, Karen Beaulieu, 40, a survivor of a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer truck in August, screamed obscenities after she was caught shoplifting Friday evening. Her boyfriend, Douglas Hanson, 40, was subdued with a stun gun after police said they found him illegally riding an ATV on a public road Sunday afternoon.

Beaulieu and Hanson live together on Audrey Lane in Oakland.

On Friday, Walmart security reported seeing Beaulieu take merchandise into the store bathroom, where she reportedly put on a pair of black pants underneath her jeans and switched tags on some items so that they would cost less, according to Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey of the Waterville Police Department.

After paying the reduced cost at a register, Beaulieu was stopped by store security, who called police and said that she was being uncooperative, Rumsey said. Rumsey said officers arrived at the store to find Beaulieu lying on the floor.

“She appeared to be in a semi-conscious state and store staff said that she seemed to have passed out and fallen to the floor prior to our arrival,” he said.

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Beaulieu has a prosthetic leg, but is ordinarily able to walk, he said.

They found she had previously been given a criminal trespass warning that prohibited her from being at the Walmart and that there were two warrants out for her arrest in Lewiston.

An ambulance took Beaulieu to Waterville’s Thayer Center for Health for medical treatment. While there, “she was being unruly and screaming obscenities in front of the other patients,” Rumsey said, so she was also charged with disorderly conduct.

Upon her release from the hospital later that evening, in addition to the theft and disorderly conduct charges, Beaulieu was charged with criminal trespass and violating conditions of release, all class E crimes punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Bail on the two warrants was set at $800.

Less than 48 hours later, on Sunday afternoon, Oakland police Officer Michael Sayers saw Hanson, riding his ATV on Elizabeth Street, which intersects with Audrey Lane near the couple’s home.

Sayers stopped Hanson because he knew Hanson has been convicted of a variety of driving offenses over the past year and does not have a valid driver’s license, according to Oakland police Capt. Rick Stubbert.

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Hanson parked the ATV on his property and ran into the mobile home with Sayers in pursuit, Stubbert said. While Sayers was talking to Hanson, Officer Jeremy Buzzell arrived at the home and Hanson became combative and attacked the officers, striking Buzzell.

Buzzell used a Taser stun gun on Hanson, subduing him, and the officers put him in the back of a police cruiser, where he continued to be combative and kick the inside of the cruiser, according to Stubbert.

“Even after he had been Tased he was still resisting,” Stubbert said.

Hanson was hit with six criminal charges: assault on an officer, a class C crime; refusing to submit to arrest or detention, physical force, a class D crime; violating condition of release; refusing to sign a criminal summons; operating while license suspended or revoked, which is typically a class E crime; and unlawful possession of scheduled Z drug, a class E crime.

Stubbert said the drug charge was added because, while searching Hanson’s body, officers found him holding a single Xanax pill that had not been prescribed to him.

The crimes carry a total maximum sentence of more than seven years in prison and fines of $9,000.

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Neither Hanson nor the officers were injured during the incident, according to Stubbert.

Hanson was processed at the police station and, two hours later, was transported to Kennebec County jail. Cash bail was set at a total of $2,750 for the various charges.

Beaulieu and Hanson, who did not respond to calls on Monday seeking comment, have been convicted of various minor crimes recently.

In April, Beaulieu was fined $500 for failing to notify police of motor vehicle accident and reckless conduct in Kennebec County Superior Court.

In August, Beaulieu was critically injured in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer carrying a full load of asphalt on Route 137 in Winslow. She was taken by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Hanson has been sentenced in four separate court appearances over the past 13 months. A handful of other charges against him were dismissed.

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In February, he was fined $250 in Kennebec County Superior Court on charges of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and violating conditions of release.

He has also been sentenced three times in Waterville District Court — in December 2012, to 48 hours in jail for failing to give motor vehicle accident information; in October, fined $250 for operating while his license was suspended or revoked; and in August, to three days in jail for obscuring motor vehicle plates and theft of services. During that last court appearance, the Waterville court also fined him $250 for operating while his license was suspended or revoked.

 

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling — 861-9287

mhhetling@centralmaine.com Twitter: @hh_matt


This is a corrected version of this story.


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