SOUTH PARIS — A Woodstock man on Friday denied a dozen crimes stemming from a March police chase and serious crash.

Ethan J. Rioux-Poulios of Woodstock appears in Oxford County Superior Court by videoconference from Oxford County Jail where he denied a dozen charges stemming from a police chase and crash in March. Screenshot from video

Ethan J. Rioux-Poulios, 26, appeared by videoconference in Oxford County Superior Court from Oxford County Jail, where he pleaded not guilty to nine felony-level charges and three misdemeanor-level charges.

Each of the felony-level aggravated assault charges carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

He’s charged with three counts of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, eluding an officer, driving to endanger, leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury or death. Each of those is punishable by up to five years in prison.

He’s also charged with three misdemeanor-level charges of driving to endanger.

Rioux-Poulios was indicted by an Oxford County grand jury on those charges in May.

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On those charges, Justice Harold Stewart II kept bail at $75,000 cash, but he also ordered Rioux-Poulios held without bail on a motion to revoke his probation pending a hearing on that motion next month.

His attorney, Verne Paradie, had filed a motion to amend his client’s bail that would allow direct transfer from the jail to a secure substance abuse disorder rehabilitation facility in Bangor, noting Rioux-Poulios has a “significant substance abuse disorder.”

Paradie said Friday approving the transfer would not put the community at risk because his client would be in custody the entire time.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Mador countered that the defendant has a string of criminal convictions dating back four years, including violations of conditions of bail and probation. Two of the charges involved gun possession, she said.

Stewart denied Paradie’s motion for the transfer.

“Mr. Poulios has been afforded opportunities in the past to seek substance use disorder treatment,” Stewart said. “I don’t know what those efforts have been, but there was certainly time that was provided. And so that request to now seek release so you can (seek) treatment is a little bit on shaky ground.”

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Stewart said Rioux-Poulios’ “substance use disorder is, of course, nothing short of leaving him as a menace to society and creating dangerous situations.”

Rioux-Poulios was convicted of manslaughter in a 2019 fatal crash and had been on probation the evening of March 4 when he was alleged to have been involved in a multi-town police chase and crash in Paris.

In the 2019 incident, the car Rioux-Poulios had been driving slammed into the back of a vehicle on state Route 26 in West Paris while fleeing from an Oxford County Sheriff’s Office deputy. The collision killed the driver, 70-year-old John Pikiell of Norway, whose vehicle was propelled into a tree.

Rioux-Poulios fled from the scene and was later located at a home in South Paris.

He was sentenced in July 2021 to seven years in prison, with all of that time — except two years — suspended. His Maine driver’s license was supposed to have been suspended indefinitely by the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, but apparently wasn’t due to an administrative glitch.

In the March 4 incident, authorities said Nicole Kumiega, 28, of Portland was driving a Ford Escape that evening when it was struck on Oxford Street in Paris by Rioux-Poulios, who was driving a pickup truck.

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Kumiega was first taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, then flown by a LifeFlight of Maine to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she was listed in critical condition.

A passenger in the Ford Escape was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital, treated and released.

The police pursuit preceding the crash started early on the evening of March 4 when the Oxford Police Department received a report of a Ford F-150 pickup truck being driven erratically on Mechanic Falls Road, or state Route 121, in Oxford.

Local police attempted to catch up with the truck, which was reported by witnesses to be striking other vehicles on Route 26 in Oxford while passing them headed north.

The driver, later identified as Rioux-Poulios, turned onto Oxford Street and continued to pass unsafely, then lost control of the truck and slammed into the Ford Escape, causing it to go off the road and into trees, authorities said.

Witnesses reported Rioux-Poulios escaped from his burning truck with a gash on his head and ran into nearby woods behind a school.

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Police received reports that he then stole a vehicle and was headed back toward Norway.

State police took up pursuit of the stolen vehicle from Oxford to Otisfield, then Norway, reaching speeds up to 75 mph, with Rioux-Poulios said to be passing long lines of cars in an effort to elude police.

The pursuit returned to Oxford roads and south on Route 26 with Maine State Police, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, Norway, Paris and Oxford police departments all involved.

A state trooper was able to nudge the stolen vehicle off Route 121 near the intersection with Allen Hill Road in Oxford where Rioux-Poulios was taken into custody.

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