LEWISTON — Two men wanted in Massachusetts appeared in court Wednesday in Lewiston on charges stemming from a weekend car crash in Revere where a state trooper was intentionally struck, police said.
After the incident, the men reportedly fled to Auburn where they were arrested Tuesday morning at a home.
Andy A. Escarfuller Medina, 22, and Luis Gonzalez, 29, appeared Wednesday afternoon in 8th District Court via videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, each charged with being a fugitive from justice.
Medina, 22, who is wanted on a Massachusetts warrant for child rape, waived extradition to Massachusetts, enabling authorities from that state to take custody of him and return him as soon as possible. He is listed as a transient on jail records.
Luis Gonzalez, 29, of Lynn, challenged probable cause for his arrest.
Deputy District Attorney James Andrews presented a Maine State Police trooper as a witness, who testified that his office had received documentation of a warrant that charged Gonzalez with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, negligent operation, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and other charges connected to the Saturday crash in Revere.
He said Massachusetts police had also sent a driver’s license photo of Gonzalez along with a physical description, including tattoos.
Judge Susan Driscoll said she found there was probable cause to support the charge of fugitive from justice and believed there was sufficient evidence that the man arrested Tuesday was Gonzalez.
Defense attorney Paul Corey argued that Gonzalez should be released to the custody of his girlfriend and her mother after posting $800 cash bail.
Andrews argued Gonzalez posed a danger to the community and was a flight risk.
Driscoll agreed.
She ordered both men held without bail at the Auburn jail pending extradition or a bail hearing later this month.
Gonzales had reportedly been driving a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run crash, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Ryan Guay.
Shortly afterward, Massachusetts State Police found him and the vehicle he had been driving, Guay said.
As police sought to apprehend Gonzales, the vehicle he was driving reportedly crashed head-on into a Massachusetts State Police vehicle. He backed up, then while trying to flee the scene, intentionally struck a trooper who was outside his cruiser, according to Guay.
Escarfuller Medina was apparently a passenger in the vehicle reportedly driven by Gonzales, Guay said.
The Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, Maine State Police and U.S. Marshals Service developed information that Gonzales had fled to a home in Auburn. U.S. Marshal Service Task Force members arrested Gonzales on Tuesday in a stolen vehicle from Massachusetts and found at the Auburn home.
Escarfuller Medina also was at the home and was arrested.
Both men were taken to Androscoggin County Jail on fugitive from justice charges pending extradition to Massachusetts, according to Guay.
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