LEWISTON — An Auburn man charged with felony drug and gun crimes after a four-hour standoff with police appeared in court Friday.
James Bourgoin
James “JJ” Bourgoin, 38, held police at bay at a single-family house at 128 Poland Spring Road from late Wednesday night until early Thursday, when he was eventually arrested without incident, police said.
Bourgoin had been the subject of a police investigation into illegal drug trafficking and there had been an outstanding warrant for his arrest to revoke his probation for allegedly not reporting to his probation officer and other alleged violations.
He denied that violation during his appearance Friday afternoon in 8th District Court by videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, where he was held in solitary quarantine. A jail supervisor said Bourgoin would be moved to general population when his condition is no longer considered to be contagious.
Judge Sarah Churchill advised Bourgoin of the seven charges against him stemming from the police standoff.
Those include two counts of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, one for methamphetamine, the other for fentanyl. Each of the two felonies is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
He was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, one for methamphetamine, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and one for fentanyl, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Bourgoin also was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
He faces two misdemeanors: unlawful possession of the scheduled drug Suboxone and creating a police standoff.
Because some of the charges are felonies, Bourgoin wasn’t asked to enter a plea to any of them, the judge said.
In order for a felony charge to go to trial, a grand jury must hand up an indictment or the defendant must waive the grand jury process.
Judge Churchill appointed an attorney to represent Bourgoin.
She set bail at $10,000 cash on the new charges, with conditions that included no possession or use of alcohol, illegal drugs or dangerous weapons, including firearms, for which he can be searched if suspected of having them.
But Churchill ordered Bourgoin held without bail pending an Aug. 31 hearing on the alleged probation violations. Prosecutors expect to file next week a second motion alleging violation of terms of probation citing the charges stemming from the standoff.
Police said that after the standoff they confiscated a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun with a loaded magazine, 18 grams of crystal methamphetamine, five grams of fentanyl, 26 Suboxone strips, two Suboxone in pill form, a digital scale and other evidence of drug trafficking.
According to a police affidavit written by Auburn Police Sgt. Nicholas Gagnon, officers began using a public address system shortly after midnight urging Bourgoin and another man to exit the building.
Police were able to eventually reach Bourgoin by cellphone and asked him to leave the house.
He refused and said the other man, identified as Chad Gomes, would not be coming out either.
Bourgoin told police that Gomes was “my only collateral.”
When he was told that the longer the standoff dragged on, “it would not look good for him, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s called a hostage. I got a hostage, right, yeah,'” according to the affidavit.
Bourgoin told police he was not letting Gomes leave the house.
“As soon as I let him out, you guys are going to bust in here,” he told police.
Gagnon wrote that he asked Bourgoin to walk out of the house and that no one wanted to harm him.
Officers outside the home could see Bourgoin carrying the gun.
After Bourgoin talked about how severe his addiction was to methamphetamine, his girlfriend joined the call from a different phone.
Bourgoin talked about killing himself with the gun, but later agreed to put it on the rear porch of the home, which he or Gomes eventually did shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, Gagnon wrote.
About 45 minutes later, Bourgoin and Gomes left the house and Bourgoin was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center for evaluation, Gagnon wrote.
Police searched the home and found methamphetamine and fentanyl under a mattress in the room where Bourgoin had been staying.
Evidence suggested a large quantity of methamphetamine had been flushed down a toilet during the standoff, Gagnon wrote.
The homeowner said Bourgoin had been selling drugs and that Gomes had served as his driver.
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