PARIS – A South Paris man pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony, and two counts of aggravated operating under the influence.
Andrew Bean, 51, was sentenced to 10 years in jail, with all but five suspended, on the drunken-driving charges, and 21 months on the firearm charge.
He also received three years of probation, and was ordered to pay a $2,100 fine for each of the aggravated OUI counts.
Active-Retired Justice Robert Clifford said the sentences would run concurrent with a 21-month federal prison sentence Bean is serving in Berlin, New Hampshire.
Clifford said probation conditions include being subject to random searches and testing, no use or possession of alcohol, a six-year loss of license, and not walking within 500 feet of neighbor Troy Ripley’s house or property in Paris.
In October, Bean’s brother, Stephen, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and fraudulently obtaining a hunting license, two days after pleading guilty in federal court to the same charges.
When they were charged, the Bean brothers and their friend, David Foster, were among five being investigated for trespassing by the Maine Warden Service. The Warden Service received complaints from landowners, including Ripley, who had posted their land against hunting in 2015.
In 2006, Ripley’s 17-year-old daughter, Megan, was shot to death by another Bean brother, Timothy, in a hunting incident in Paris.
Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor said charge of possession of a firearm by a felon for Andrew Bean stemmed from a 2002 plea to a felony charge of operating under the influence.
“In fact, Mr. Bean has eight OUI offenses, dating back to the 1980s,” O’Connor said. “He’s somebody who, if he kills somebody while drunk driving, might feel bad afterward, but that’s not going to help anybody. He’s a dangerous man, and a menace to public safety.”
The two OUIs Bean pleaded guilty to Tuesday occurred on Nov. 21, 2015, and Dec. 20, 2015.
O’Connor said that in December 2015, after Paris police officer Bill Cook pulled Bean over, Bean admitted to being drunk and asked to be taken to jail.
“He later took a Breathalyzer test, where he blew a .29, nearly four times the legal (blood-alcohol) limit,” O’Connor said. “There was a Maine judge who once said it’s not a crime to have a drinking problem, but it is a crime to drink and drive. I think anything less than the recommended sentence would not reflect the gravity of these offenses.”
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