AUBURN — Prosecutors agreed not to use at trial statements made to two of three state investigators by a mechanic who worked at Harvest Hill Farm in Mechanic Falls at the time of a 2014 fatal accident during a haunted hayride.
Assistant District Attorney Andrew Matulis told a judge in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Thursday that statements made during an October 2014 interview by Philip Theberge, 38, of Norway to David York, an investigator with Maine State Police and Office of State Fire Marshal Senior Investigator Daniel Young will not be introduced at Theberge’s trial because of questions about whether they were voluntary.
In an agreement hammered out with Theberge’s attorney, Adam Sherman, only statements Theberge made to Office of State Fire Marshal Investigator Kenneth MacMaster in an Oct. 15 interview can be used at Theberge’s trial, Matulis told Justice MaryGay Kennedy.
Kennedy said she had reviewed the MacMaster interview, “and I would agree there is no problem with that interview.”
A hearing on Theberge’s motion to suppress statements had been scheduled for Thursday morning.
Before that hearing, the attorneys agreed on which statements would be allowed at Theberge’s trial and Sherman was expected to withdraw his motion to suppress his client’s statements made to MacMaster.
An Oakland teen was killed and 22 other people were injured, some seriously, in an accident during a haunted hayride at Harvest Hill Farm’s “The Gauntlet” on the night of Oct. 11, 2014.
Cassidy Charette, 17, was with several other students from Messalonskee High School, including the most seriously injured teen, 16-year-old Connor Garland of Belgrade.
A Jeep pulling a flatbed trailer loaded with passengers lost its brakes on a steep incline along a wooded trail and crashed into a tree, knocking it down and spilling passengers into the woods.
Theberge is facing a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
According to a sworn affidavit in court files, Theberge told MacMaster that during the four years he worked for Peter Bolduc, owner of Harvest Hill Farm, “he has never known of any preventive maintenance on any of the vehicles that … Bolduc uses in The Gauntlet. Theberge told MacMaster that the first vehicle Bolduc used in The Gauntlet was the Subaru-style vehicle and that was because it would not pass inspection and had to be taken off the road.”
Young wrote in an affidavit for search warrants that Theberge told MacMaster: “The Jeep CJ5 had been there for four years and never had any regular or preventive maintenance. All the repairs were reactive to the current mechanical problem.”
The previous summer, only the Jeep’s gasoline tank had been repaired, Theberge had said.
Young wrote that Theberge told MacMaster that on Oct. 11, 2014 (the day of the crash), he received a page from Bolduc telling him to “come to Harvest Hill Farm and repair the Jeep and Subaru. There was an ignition issue with the Subaru and the Jeep was running rough. Theberge recalled adjusting the carburetor and checking the oil, antifreeze and brake fluid. He told MacMaster that the oil was down two quarts; however, the brake fluid and antifreeze were fine. Theberge further stated that in the four years that he had been the mechanic, there had been no work done on the Jeep’s brakes. Theberge also stated that he drove the Jeep last year and that the brakes ‘heated up.'”
Theberge told MacMaster that after the incident, a woman named Carrie, who works for Bolduc at his Portland business, told Theberge and three or four others gathered at the farm that she had ridden The Gauntlet in the Jeep the night before with David Brown and Brown had told her that the brakes seemed “funny.”
Brown, 56, of South Paris, was the driver of the Jeep on the night of the crash. He, like Theberge, was charged with reckless conduct.
Brown is expected to be scheduled on the September trial list; Theberge, on the October list, according to a court clerk.
A pretrial conference to discuss funding for an expert in Theberge’s case likely will be held in June.
Bolduc was not indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury, but his business, Harvest Hill Farm, was charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault, driving to endanger and reckless conduct.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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