SABATTUS – A Sabattus man is charged with aggravated assault, theft and being a fugitive after a Tennessee court officer he’d been dating turned him in to police last Friday, Lt. Gary Nelson of the Kingston Police Department said Monday night.
New details were released Monday about the arrest of Robert M. Fain, 48, who is suspected of writing tens of thousands of dollars worth of bogus checks in Maine, New Hampshire and Florida, according to investigators.
Fain had been dating a Roane County juvenile court officer for a couple of weeks when she became suspicious and checked the Internet to find he was wanted, the lieutenant said.
“She googled’ his name,” the officer said, and found his photo and information on mainemostwanted.com, a Web site sponsored by the University of Maine at Augusta and the Maine Community Policing Institute. The site advised those with information to call the Topsham Police Department, which has a warrant charging him with writing $13,000 worth of checks on a closed account for two ATVs.
The unidentified woman called Topsham police Friday afternoon from her office in the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, Tenn., according to police, and was told to call her local police department.
At 4:36 p.m., she called the Kingston Police Department two blocks from her office and advised the dispatcher that Fain was apparently wanted and in a stolen truck in the parking lot outside, Nelson said.
Patrolman Troy Wright and Nelson responded. Wright pulled in front of the 1995 Dodge Ram pickup occupied by Fain, and Nelson was behind it. Fain was ordered by Wright to show his hands, but he refused and drove the truck toward Wright, nearly running over him, Nelson said.
Wright fired one round into the back left tire.
Next, Nelson said, “He tried to run over me. I shot out his left front tire.”
Fain then left the parking lot, ramming a parked vehicle, the officer said.
“When he struck that vehicle, he backed up and rammed Wright’s Jeep, pulled forward, lost control again and rammed Wright’s Jeep again and disabled it.
Nelson said he caught up with Fain “face to face” about three blocks away, and the man gave himself up at gunpoint.
Fain was not carrying any weapons, he said, but did fight with Roane County deputies who tried to handcuff him.
The truck, with New Hampshire dealer plates and owned by Rochester Lincoln Mercury Toyota Dodge, Nelson said, was reported stolen. An inventory of its contents was still being done Monday, he said, but the dealership papers inside did not have Fain’s name on them. In fact, nothing in the truck had Fain’s name on it, he said.
The case has been turned over the the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as required in cases where officers fire their weapons. Nelson said he and Wright each fired two rounds into the truck tires.
Patrolman Wright was treated at a hospital Friday night for back pain suffered when his cruiser was rammed, and released that evening, said Nelson, who wasn’t injured in the incident.
Nelson said it is believed Fain had been in Kingston for a couple of weeks. Detectives were interviewing the juvenile court officer who reported him to authorities, he said.
Fain is being held in the Roane County Jail in Kingston on two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of hit and run, one count of reckless driving, one count of reckless endangerment, felony evading, theft of property and being a fugitive from justice. Warrants for his arrest are outstanding in Maine, New Hampshire and Florida, according to Topsham Detective Mark Gilliam.
Fain is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Monday, March 13, in the Roane County Courthouse, Nelson said.
The Roane County Courthouse parking lot where Fain was confronted is the same one where a prisoner’s wife shot and killed a corrections officer about six months ago in an attempt to allow him to escape, Nelson said. The couple, George and Jennifer Hyatte, were captured in Kentucky two days later, he said.
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