LEWISTON — A judge on Friday set bail at $1,000 for a Lisbon man accused of threatening to blow up a state government building.

Police said Alexander Hanks, 24, of 30 Sabattus Creek Drive posted on Facebook a threat to blow up a Department of Health and Human Services building.

He posted: “Can’t wait to watch the building go boom!” according to a prosecutor.

He was charged with felony terrorizing, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Lisbon police arrested Hanks on Wednesday on a warrant and executed a search warrant at his home. No firearms or bomb-making materials were found, police said.

An 8th District Court judge lowered Hanks’ bail from $2,500 cash to $1,000 or $5,000 real estate. He will be allowed to go free on $500 bail if supervised.

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Hanks’ mother was in the courtroom, but she said she didn’t know whether her ex-husband had any equity in his condominium that he might be able to put up for bail.

Prosecutors were seeking bail of $25,000 cash or $100,000 real estate, saying Hanks posed a danger to the community and the dozens of government employees who work in a DHHS building.

A defense attorney representing Hanks on Friday asked the judge that bail be set a $500 cash.

If released, Hanks may not possess any dangerous weapons, including firearms, explosives and knives with blades longer than 6 inches, for which he can be searched at random.

He is barred from being within 500 feet of any Maine DHHS building or Community Concepts building and may have no contact with anyone who works at either of those agencies.

He would be subject to a curfew from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.

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Assistant District Attorney Michael Dumas said Hanks’ child’s mother may be a witness for the prosecution and asked that he not be allowed to have contact with her. The judge agreed.

Hanks has a GED, a local job and provides for his 11-month-old child and the child’s mother. It would be “very difficult for them not to have contact,” his attorney said.

The only convictions in Hanks’ criminal record include theft and disorderly conduct, Dumas said.

Hanks didn’t enter a plea to the charge Friday because it’s a felony. All felony charges must be handed up by a grand jury to proceed to trial.

Alexander Hanks appears in 8th District Court in Lewiston on Friday on a terrorizing charge. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)


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