PORTLAND — Bail for a Lewiston man who was charged in federal court in August with selling stolen tractors on eBay was revoked by a federal judge Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff said Monday that bail for Matthew Theriault, 25, was revoked after the judge determined there was “probable cause” to believe Theriault violated his federal bail conditions when he was summonsed by the Lewiston Police Department on a charge of criminal mischief.

Theriault first appeared in federal court in Portland on Aug. 14 and was released on personal recognizance. As a condition of his release, he must not commit any new crimes.

But on Aug. 25, Lewiston police officer David Levesque issued Theriault a summons for criminal mischief.

Federal court records show a man named Erwin May had been in a dispute with Theriault’s father, Denis Theriault, a Lewiston city councilor and local landlord.

Both Denis Theriault and Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert were in attendance at the bail revocation hearing on Friday, according to Wolff.

Wolff said Gilbert was introduced as a potential witness for the defense but that the mayor did not testify.

Gilbert was also not listed as a witness on the federal court’s witness list for that hearing.

Gilbert said he was there to support his friend Denis Theriault. Gilbert, a former U.S. Marshal, also said he visited his old office with Denis Theriault.

“I was there to be supportive of a friend,” Gilbert said Monday. “Denis Theriault is an honorable man and my friend.”

Court records show May and his girlfriend called police on the afternoon of Aug. 25 after they saw Matthew Theriault park his truck behind May’s vehicle at 243 Bartlett St., then quickly drive away.

Levesque found the interior of May’s 1999 Ford Explorer covered in a brown substance that smelled like feces, according to a sworn statement by R. Matthew Brown, the federal probation officer assigned to monitor Matthew Theriault.

“Levesque described the smell of the substance as nauseating and unbearable,” Brown wrote in his statement.

Levesque issued the younger Theriault a summons on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief, but he said in court papers that he expects Theriault will be charged with a felony because the damage to the Explorer likely exceeds $2,000.

Lewiston police have refused to release a copy of Levesque’s initial report on the incident.

Lewiston police Chief Michael Bussiere said information in the report could prejudice potential jurors in the criminal mischief case and that the case remains under investigation.

Michael Whipple, Theriault’s lawyer, has said his client didn’t vandalize May’s vehicle and he should be released again on personal recognizance. Whipple said he would present evidence to exonerate his client of any wrongdoing.

A call to Whipple on the judge’s recent order to hold Matthew Theriault without bail until his federal trial, set for October, was not returned Monday.

A federal grand jury indicted Matthew Theriault on Aug. 5. He is accused of selling three stolen Kubota tractors on eBay in the fall of 2006.

Buyers in Pennsylvania, New York and Iceland agreed to pay $13,000, $10,000 and $14,100 for the tractors.

Matthew Theriault faces six counts of wire fraud, each of which is punishable by as much as 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He is also charged with two counts of interstate transportation of stolen goods; two counts of possession of stolen goods; one count of making a false statement on a loan application; one count of engaging in a monetary transaction involving criminally derived property, and one count of making a false statement to a government agency.