LEWISTON – Ronald J. Leno, a Durham resident with a history of sexual assaults against women in other states, remained jailed Tuesday on a charge of aggravated assault against a Durham man.

District Court Judge Richard Lawrence set Leno’s bail at $20,000 cash, or $50,000 in property. He ordered Leno to stay away from a Durham family should he gain release. A probable cause hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. July 20, but Lawrence said a grand jury could rise and issue an indictment before then.

The District Attorney’s Office had asked for $50,000 bail, citing Leno’s extensive criminal background. That includes three rape-related convictions in 1978 and 1980 in Massachusetts and Hawaii, convictions for theft, assault and drunken driving, and parole violations.

Leno’s lawyer, Howard F. O’Brien III of Portland, argued for $1,000 bail. He called Leno “a friend of a friend,” and said Leno will seek representation by a court-appointed lawyer as the case progresses.

Arguing for a lower bail, O’Brien said, “He’s a Vietnam veteran.” Leno, 56, was awarded Silver and Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during that war, O’Brien said.

He said Leno has been living in Maine for more than two years with “no problem until the sheriff’s department decided to make this a media case.”

His crimes, O’Brien suggested, were things of the past. “He has had no conviction for many, many years,” the lawyer said.

Leno and his status as a sex offender came to the attention of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department last week after a notice of harassment was filed against Leno in Brunswick. Since hearing of Leno’s residency in town, Durham residents have called an informational meeting for Thursday.

A sworn statement by Paul Pugliese painted a different picture of Leno.

Pugliese said in the statement that Leno spit at him, pulled a club and attacked him when he went to Leno’s home last Saturday to tell him to stay away from his family.

Leno “hit me in the head six or seven times, on the right arm four or five times, on the leg and ear all while I was trying to grab some part of him to subdue his rage,” Pugliese recalled in the statement. The document was filed along with a police affidavit to support the aggravated assault charge.

The alleged assault happened at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Things started to unravel two-and-a-half hours earlier, according to Pugliese’s statement.

Pugliese recalled that at about 3 p.m. a man he later learned was Leno stopped at his house and approached his wife as she worked in the garden. At the time, his wife described him as being “just chatty” and she didn’t think he was the sexual predator that police had cautioned Durham residents about two days earlier.

About an hour later his wife and daughter were on their way to a store in Lisbon and passed Leno’s home. That’s when she “saw him in his hammock waving” and connected the afternoon visitor with Leno.

“When they returned and told me, we all were very upset. My wife said it was freaky, and she felt sick,” Pugliese wrote.

He noted that at about 5 he dressed to see a mechanic about a car.

“Just before I left I brought my wife a gun, loaded it, and told her to use it if she had to, and then I left,” Pugliese continued. “On the way, I felt I needed to tell Mr. Leno that he was not welcome near my family. So I passed his house. When I saw him walking out of his garage, I pulled up his driveway and stopped about halfway. He smilingly approached my truck when I asked him if he was the person who stopped and spoke to my wife.

“… At that time I told him to stay away from my wife, family or you will pay the price,'” Pugliese stated.

He said Leno replied, “I guess you know I’m a sexual offender, but that was 20 years ago.”

Pugliese stated that he repeated his earlier demand. Leno then called him a coward and asked him to get out of his truck “and settle it right there,” according to the statement.

Pugliese said that when he saw Leno “becoming confrontational I began to back out of his driveway. He followed me, getting closer and closer to my truck door. When I got my truck onto the street he came up to the door, spit a banana in my face (and) pulled a club … proceeding to … hit me, my truck door, came in the window swinging and then opened the door to strike me over and over.”

Pugliese said he was able to pull Leno’s sweater over his arms and halt the brawl. Leno backed off “only to come back face to face (to) say Why don’t you buy me out?'” Pugliese said.

“Sure, how much,’ I said. $250,000, he replied. I said sarcastically, Sureeee, (I’ll) have a check tomorrow,'” Pugliese later wrote.

“While he was yelling some expletives I got in my truck, rolled down the passenger’s side window and told him this is assault with a weapon, you’ll be sorry,” he stated.

O’Brien, Leno’s attorney on Tuesday, declined to facilitate an interview with his client.

“I’d advise him not to talk to the press,” he said.

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