SCARBOROUGH – Leaking pipes in the trailer where former inmate Norman Dickinson was living on Maine State Correctional Center property in Windham have resulted in the self-described “ticking time bomb” being moved to a cottage at Pine Point.
Neighbors there held a hastily called meeting Monday at the Pine Point fire station with representatives of the state Department of Corrections and the Scarborough Police Department to complain about Dickinson’s living in their neighborhood.
Dickinson, 38, a career criminal now on probation, was moved from the Maine State Prison in Warren to the trailer in Windham nearly six weeks ago after an arrangement for him to live in an apartment in Portland fell through.
Similar attempts to place the beleaguered convict in Lewiston have failed in the past. In 1997, Lewiston residents expressed their anger and fear when plans to house Dickinson in a Pine Street apartment began to circulate. City leaders fought the prison system to keep Dickinson out. The police chief fumed that Lewiston was being used as a “dumping ground.”
The outcry thwarted Dickinson’s plans for freedom. He was ordered to remain in prison after refusing to go to Lewiston to face angry residents.
Three years later, after more prison time, Dickinson finally went to Lewiston and moved to an apartment on Drew Street. Police dutifully notified neighbors and waited for fallout.
Four days later, Dickinson was accused of exposing himself to three women while walking down the road. He was sent back to prison.
Dickinson, who was convicted of kidnapping, robbery and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon in 1989 in Portland, last received attention earlier this fall when Portland residents voiced opposition about him living there and the landlord who had agreed to rent him an apartment changed his mind.
Lisa Nash, DOC regional correctional administrator, said her office has called more than 300 landlords to try to come up with an appropriate place for Dickinson to live.
On Oct. 27, Dickinson was moved from the Windham trailer to the Admiral Motel on Route 1 in Scarborough. Then on Nov. 1, he moved into one of the small, one-bedroom, 385-square-foot cottages on Pine Point that was part of the former Mooring Hotel, which is now a private residence.
Nash said the move isn’t intended to be permanent and that it isn’t an ideal place for Dickinson, since he needs to be near services. But she wasn’t able to say how long Dickinson would be living at Pine Point.
She said her department is still looking for a place for Dickinson to live in the greater Portland area. “We have worked and worked and worked to find him housing,” Nash said.
Nash said the corrections department is not required to notify neighbors or the Police Department of Dickinson’s whereabouts, although she said Chief Robert Moulton was notified.
Dickinson, who is required to wear a Geographical Information Systems ankle bracelet, is not allowed to leave the cottage without being accompanied by people from the corrections department. Although when he was first released from prison, he was watched 24 hours a day by two armed probation officers, he is sometimes left alone now, she said.
If he steps beyond the cottage or if he tampers with the the bracelet, two parole officers are automatically paged, Nash said. She said he has attempted to take off the bracelet in the past, but not since his most recent release from prison.
“The Department of Corrections thinks we are over-supervising him,” Nash said, adding that there are other people in the community who are more dangerous.
Most of the approximately 25 people at the meeting Monday said they were afraid for themselves and their families.
“One of my concerns,” Dominic Reali said, “is that he’s said if he’s released he’s going to recommit the crime. I don’t understand how the state can place this guy in a populated area. Is the state going to wait until he takes a gun to someone’s head and kills him?”
One woman said she used to walk three or four nights a week. “I’m a walker; I don’t walk anymore,” she said.
“We were all scared to death when our electricity went off” this past weekend, Judy Shirk said. Nash said Dickinson called his parole officer when the area lost power.
Bob Carson said he saw Dickinson walk out the back door, but not onto the lawn.
“I work nights, and I’m old. My wife had two strokes this summer. … She’s petrified. Every light is on in my house,” Carson said, adding that he calls his wife every 15 minutes. “This is the first time since World War II that I’m considering seeing the police chief and getting a gun.”
Nash told the neighbors that Dickinson was convicted of a Class C business burglary, which, she said, “is not quite as serious as a house burglary.”
She said it was in 1996 that Dickinson told the press he is a “ticking time bomb.’ He wanted that attention. He certainly got it. … The media paid a fair amount of attention to Mr. Dickinson. As a result, we pay a fair amount more attention than normal.”
“Mr. Dickinson is allowed to live where he wants to live with our approval,” Nash said.
She said when his probation is over in a year and a half, “no one will be watching him. This is our best chance to affect some sort of change with this person. … We’re trying to do whatever we can do to protect the public.”
Moulton, the Scarborough police chief, said he is “not thrilled (with Dickinson living in Scarborough), in the sense it makes people uncomfortable. My preference is for people not to feel that way.”
Moulton said his officers “are aware of the situation” and consider it a priority.
“It certainly would not be our choice,” he said of Dickinson permanently living in Scarborough. But, he said, “Unfortunately we work within a system.”
At the conclusion of the hour and a half meeting, some neighbors said they would circulate a petition to try to have Dickinson moved.
Nash told the neighbors that Dickinson is also afraid.
“He’s scared. He’s locking all his doors. … He’s scared people are going to come after him. He’s afraid of the dark.”
Dickinson is 6 feet 2 inches tall, average build and shaves his head. He usually wears a sweatshirt and jeans, Nash said.
Comments are no longer available on this story