AUBURN – The rights of a Litchfield man accused of beating his girlfriend, then leaving her to die on a busy road last September, were not violated by police, a judge ruled this week.

Roger Keene, 40, attempted to argue that his Sixth Amendment right was violated when police interviewed him in jail about the death of Leslie Stasulis.

At the time of the interview, Keene was at Knox County Jail. Officially, he was being held for a probation violation.

However, he had been indicted on charges of manslaughter, attempted murder and kidnapping in connection with Stasulis’ death.

His lawyer, Justin Leary, argued that under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the rights of defendants in criminal cases, detectives were barred from interrogating Keene about Stasulis because a grand jury had already charged him with killing her.

Leary accused police of trying to get a confession from Keene before he was transferred to Androscoggin County Jail, where he could fill out paperwork requesting a lawyer.

“Police shouldn’t have approached him after he was indicted,” Leary argued.

Justice Thomas D. Warren didn’t agree.

Ruling

In a written ruling handed down this week, Warren pointed out that Keene agreed to talk to detectives even after they informed him of his a right to remain silent and his right to an attorney.

“As of the Dec. 4, 2003, interview, no request for counsel had been made by Keene with respect to the pending indictment,” Warren ruled. “Law enforcement officers were free to approach him.”

Warren also ruled that police had enough probable cause to seize Keene’s pickup truck on Sept. 13 even though they didn’t have a warrant.

As a result of the judge’s ruling, state prosecutors will be able to use the evidence gathered from the truck and the statements Keene made to police during the Dec. 4 interview.

Specific details of that interrogation are not available to the public, but police have released other information about their investigation.

4-inch gash

They say Stasulis, a 42-year-old mother of five and the owner of a local bar, had been attempting to end an affair with Keene at the time of her death.

Upset by Stasulis’ decision to stop seeing him, police say, Keene kidnapped her from her bar at 339 Lisbon St., beat her on the head, then threw her from his truck.

Stasulis was bleeding from a 4-inch gash on her head when paramedics found her on the side of Route 126. Her eye was swollen, her legs covered with cuts. She couldn’t move. She could hardly speak.

She died nine days later at Central Maine Medical Center.

Police identified Keene as a suspect after interviewing people who were hanging out at Stasulis’ bar, Leslie’s Place, the night before she was found in the road.

According to a police affidavit, Keene admitted during an interview on Sept. 16 that he was with Stasulis that night.

He told police that he and Stasulis were fighting outside the bar and Stasulis kicked him between his legs and tried to slap him. Then, according to the police affidavit, he claimed that Stasulis lost her balance, fell to the ground and hit her head.

He told police that he panicked and put her in the back of his truck. During the drive to his house in Litchfield, he heard her moaning, “Help me. Help me.” He said that he slammed on the brakes, Stasulis fell out of the back and he took off.

Then, according to the affidavit, Keene told police that he returned and watched from a distance until the ambulance arrived.

If convicted of the charges facing him, Keene could spend the rest of his life in prison. His trial is tentatively scheduled for this fall.