LEWISTON — Police said a Lisbon woman who fled the scene of a crash Saturday offered them $1,000 to take her home instead of to jail.
Jamie M. Levesque Androscoggin County Jail
Jamie M. Levesque, 33, of 35 Park St., pleaded not guilty Monday in 8th District Court to five misdemeanor charges stemming from the crash, including criminal operating under the influence and refusing to submit to arrest.
Police said Levesque had been charged recently with drunken driving and bail conditions prohibited her from having alcohol.
According to an affidavit by Lewiston patrol officer Travys Fecteau, police found Levesque in the area of College and Fair streets around 4:30 p.m. with “glossy” eyes and a “distant stare,” her “speech was thick and slurred.”
Fecteau wrote that she smelled “heavily of alcohol” and told him she was waiting for a ride.
She said she had been headed to work when her truck broke down near Montello Manor and was calling her boyfriend to get a ride.
Levesque said she had been involved in a crash, but had been the victim of a hit and run by someone who appeared “messed up” or “out of it,” leading Levesque to believe that person was “high or something.”
Police would later record her blood alcohol content at .29%, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08%.
Levesque told Fecteau she had not been driving the truck when the crash at Russell and Sabattus streets had occurred, but later said she had not driven after the crash. She eventually admitted to having driven during and after the crash, but denied both afterward, explaining a random person had driven the truck after the crash, Fecteau wrote.
Levesque asked Fecteau repeatedly to call a police officer and a retired officer on her behalf, he wrote. Once in the cruiser, Levesque “tried using a nonexistent ‘Siri-like’ function from the rear of my cruiser to my cruiser MDT (mobile data terminal) to call one of the individuals,” Fecteau wrote.
She denied having any injuries from the crash and said she hadn’t drunk anything since then. Fecteau conducted a field sobriety test.
He arrested her, but she resisted, refusing to get in the cruiser and kicking the door to prevent it from being closed, Fecteau wrote. At the station, she had resisted taking an intoxilyzer test, he wrote.
From there, she was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, after telling officers she had found out that day that she was pregnant. At the hospital, she repeatedly offered officers $1,000 “to split if we would take her home instead of jail,” Fecteau wrote.
After he told her that her offers were a crime, she said, “Well, guess what, lawyers can take care of that,” Fecteau wrote.
He also wrote that police found a Fireball “nip” bottle in her purse and two empty “nip” bottles on the ground near the truck she had been driving. Later, police collected more “nips” from the truck.
“On the way to the jail,” Fecteau wrote, “Levesque inquired if she was on camera. I told her she wasn’t. She asked me to stop at the ATM for money, then suggested I stop and let her go, stating: ‘Just say I took off. My lawyer will cover me.’ ”
Assistant District Attorney Nathan Walsh was seeking to have Levesque held without bail pending a hearing, charging she had violated the terms of her bail that included no use of alcohol from a drunken driving charge a month earlier.
“The state has serious concerns about public safety in this matter,” Walsh said.
“This second OUI is, fair to say, a wake-up call for her in terms of perhaps having to address what previously might not have been thought of as a serious substance abuse issue. She certainly understands that,” said defense attorney Nicholas Worden, arguing for her release on $500 cash bail and later arrange for supervised release.
A judge settled on $1,000 cash bail, including supervised release.
Levesque is barred from possessing alcohol and may only drive if properly licensed.
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