PORTLAND — Maine’s highest court has upheld a 52-year-old Lisbon man’s attempted murder conviction for ramming a police officer’s cruiser with a dump truck during a chase.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday rejected Bartolo Ford’s appeal of his 2010 conviction.
During trial, prosecutors said Ford fled from Auburn police after they confronted him for some stolen concrete cylinders. They say he repeatedly rammed their cruisers with his dump truck during the chase. One of the officers shot Ford in the hip.
Ford’s lawyer blamed his actions on post-traumatic stress disorder and medications that caused him to have a sustained flashback to his military service during the Gulf War.
The supreme court rejected Ford’s argument that the trial judge should have instructed the jury on self-defense and intoxication.
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- Bartolo Ford
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- Auburn police officers stand near one of two cruisers — this one is at the intersection of Hotel and Kittyhawk roads — damaged by a truck driven by Bartolo Ford, 49, of Lisbon.
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