PARIS — A man convicted of manslaughter after the death of a passenger in a 2005 car accident denied violating terms of his probation Friday.

Robert J. Brimage Jr., 31, of College Street in Lewiston appeared before Justice Roland Cole in Oxford County Superior Court. Cole assigned George Hess as Brimage’s lawyer and allowed Brimage to remain free on personal recognizance bail.

According to Sun Journal archives, Brimage was severely injured on July 24, 2005, when his 1990 Chrysler New Yorker left the road on Route 108 in Rumford, struck a utility pole, and hit a house. The sole passenger, 44-year-old Ricky Steedley of Peru, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Brimage was indicted in December 2005 on charges of manslaughter, operating under the influence and operating after revocation. He pleaded guilty in July 2006 to manslaughter, and other charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to serve one year of a five-year prison sentence and four years of probation. Probation conditions required him to not use or possess illegal drugs or alcohol, submit to random searches for the items, attend substance abuse counseling, and not operate a motor vehicle.

Brimage was ordered to serve nine months of the underlying sentence in August 2007 after the court determined he violated his probation by assaulting a then 27-year-old woman and her then 8-year-old son in Lewiston in June 2007. The court also found that Brimage failed to report to his probation officer.

In August 2009, after his probation officer accused him of using alcohol, testing positive for marijuana, failing to report and failing to maintain employment, the court gave Brimage credit for 21 days spent in jail for those probation violations.

The latest charge accuses Brimage of testing positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in February and June. The substance is a psychoactive compound extracted from the resin of marijuana.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com

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