RUMFORD — Police Detectives Capt. Dan Garbarini and Sgt. James Bernard arrested three people and summoned a fourth on separate charges within about three hours Monday.
The first was Stephen V. Heath, 55, of Rumford, who is accused of failing to register as required as a convicted sex offender, his probation officer Michael Downs said Monday.
According to the Maine Sex Offender Registry, Heath was convicted on April 25, 1990, of sodomy, first degree, in Lane County Court in Springfield, Ore., and sentenced to 37 months and probation.
As of Nov. 28, he was incarcerated at Cumberland County Jail in Portland, according to the registry. Downs said Heath was released from jail on Thursday and placed on probation for two Class C felony counts of failing to properly register as a convicted sex offender.
Heath stopped by Downs’ office on Congress Street on Monday for the first time.
On learning that Heath has been living in Rumford and hadn’t alerted Rumford police within 24 hours as required, Downs contacted Garbarini and Bernard.
At 10:19 a.m., Garbarini arrested Heath on a Class B felony charge of failure to register as a convicted sex offender. Downs said it was the fourth time Heath failed to register.
Heath was released on $2,000 unsecured bail and will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 17 in Oxford County Superior Court.
At 10:45 a.m. Downs, Garbarini and Bernard went to the Essex Avenue apartment of Carl Ryerson, 29. Ryerson was indicted Friday by an Oxford County grand jury on two Class A felony counts of aggravated trafficking in prescription narcotics.
Because Ryerson was on probation, Garbarini said Downs placed a probation hold on him, and then Garbarini arrested and charged Ryerson with a probation violation on the new crimes.
On Jan. 10, Ryerson was convicted of felony burglary and robbery stemming from an incident on May 3, 2010, in which he broke into an Essex Avenue apartment and stole drugs. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, of which all but 30 days were suspended.
Downs said Ryerson was placed on two years probation in February after serving the jail time.
While on probation on Aug. 10 and 12, Ryerson was accused of selling hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Percocet) to an undercover Maine Drug Enforcement agent, Tony Milligan of the MDEA said Tuesday in Rumford.
On Nov. 29, Garbarini arrested Ryerson, charging him with two counts of Class A felony aggravated trafficking in prescription narcotics. The aggravated charge was levied because the drug deal happened within a certain distance from a school or drug-free zone, Milligan said.
Ryerson was released on bail, and then the MDEA decided to present the case to a grand jury.
On Friday, Downs said he received the MDEA report of the new criminal activity.
“By his own admission, he has been selling prescription drugs for about a year and he’s been on probation for about 10 months, so he did it knowing he has 17 months (in jail) hanging over his head,” Downs said.
Due to the probation violation, Ryerson was taken to Oxford County Jail in Paris to await arraignment. He remained behind bars Tuesday evening.
Following Ryerson’s arrest Monday, Bernard said he and Garbarini received a tip at 1:40 p.m. from a local pharmacy of someone possibly getting prescriptions fraudulently.
They went to the pharmacy, found the suspect, investigated, and then arrested Shawn Davis, 39, of Rumford on an Androscoggin County warrant charging failure to pay fines on charge of operating after suspension.
Garbarini said additional charges are pending further investigation. Davis was released per a judge’s order with conditions.
While at the pharmacy, Bernard said an employee told him they suspected Davis’ girlfriend, Elicia Vazquez, 23, of Rumford, of shoplifting two items, concealing them in her purse and leaving the store.
Bernard said he detained her and determined she had two sets of active bail conditions that included making herself available for searches and testing.
The subsequent purse search found two stolen candy bars, Bernard said. Vazquez was summoned on charges of shoplifting theft, violation of bail and illegal possession of marijuana. She will be arraigned March 6 in Rumford District Court.
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