SKOWHEGAN — The long arm of the law finally caught up with Kevin Dodge. It just took a few decades.

The 47-year-old Skowhegan man appeared in Somerset County Superior Court in December to face nearly 30 separate charges, including burglary, forgery, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief and theft — all dating from 1986.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Dodge pleaded guilty to the charges at the time but then vanished.

When he failed to show up in court for sentencing, warrants were issued for his arrest. The warrants sat in a bottom drawer at the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department until Sept. 25, when the department received a call from the sheriff’s office in Oswego, N.Y., according to Somerset Chief Deputy Dale Lancaster.

New York authorities found that Dodge was wanted in Maine and that Somerset County officials would extradite him back to face charges, so they arrested him.

Dodge appeared in a New York court room the following day as a fugitive from justice, and the extradition process was begun. He was returned to Maine and finally sentenced in December, Maloney said.

Dodge had skipped out on sentencing dates set in October, November and December 1986 and some more in 1987, according to court records. Criminal activity was charged in several towns in Somerset County from Moscow and Bingham to Athens, Madison, Solon and Smithfield. Some of the convictions were for time in the county jail; others were for the Maine State Prison.

Maloney said all the charges were assembled and Dodge was sentenced to serve five years in the state prison, with all but two years suspended, and three years’ probation once he is released.

He also is ordered to pay $4,461 in restitution related to a burglary in Madison.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367 dharlow@centralmaine.com Twitter: @Doug_Harlow