AUGUSTA — Six people arrested following a Friday stabbing in Chelsea and a subsequent early morning drug raid Saturday in Farmingdale spent the weekend in jail, although the victim of the stabbing was expected to be released later Monday.

The six made initial court appearances Monday afternoon at the Capital Judicial Center via video from the Kennebec County jail next door. Each defendant was brought into the video arraignment room separately to avoid contact with each other.

Jasmine Swift, 26, of Augusta and Farmingdale, the victim of the stabbing, had her left arm in a sling when she appeared on camera. She is charged with unlawful possession of heroin Sept. 9 in Chelsea. She was treated and released from MaineGeneral Medical Center on Friday.

William Baghdoyan, representing Swift as a lawyer of the day, said the police affidavit had too little information about why Swift was being charged or why the car she was in was stopped by police.

“My understanding is she was stabbed numerous times in the left arm and has a broken arm as well,” Baghdoyan told Justice Robert Mullen. “They’re talking to her as a victim of a crime, and they do a search of her.”

The affidavit says the vehicle Swift was operating contained heroin as well as her wallet.

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It also said that when she was told she was being arrested, she pulled a hypodermic needle and a bag of heroin from under her shirt.

Assistant District Attorney Tracy DeVoll said there could be suppression motions later, but she sought bail at $1,000 cash along with a Maine Pretrial Services contract. DeVoll said Swift had “a significant record as a juvenile.”

Mullen set bail at $500 unsecured with a contract. He said he would allow her to be released from jail prior to the contract being finalized after Baghdoyan said Swift was supposed to see a surgeon about her arm on Monday.

Conditions of bail prohibit her from possessing illegal drugs and from contact with four of the others arrested Friday during the same investigation.

Tatyana N. Tomlinson, 20, of New York City, who is accused of stabbing Swift, is charged with aggravated assault. Mullen set her bail at $15,000 cash with prohibitions against possessing illegal drugs, firearms and dangerous weapons and from having contact with Swift. Tomlinson also is prohibited from leaving Maine without written permission from the court.

Tomlinson told the judge that she has been living most recently in Chelsea.

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Mullen said the high bail amount is because of the seriousness of the charge, because Tomlinson acknowledged to a law enforcement officer that she had hurt another person and because she initially was evasive when giving her name.

Kevin Sullivan, who represented her as a lawyer of the day, also objected to the affidavit used as probable cause to arrest Tomlinson.

He said it mentions only that police were seeking a woman with red hair in a tan or silver sedan leaving the scene of the stabbing. “This is Maine. That is probably half the vehicles out there,” Sullivan said.

He said there was no mention that the woman with red hair had black skin.

The car Tomlinson was riding in was stopped on Barber Road in Randolph. The affidavit by Maine State Trooper Klayton Peckham says, “I noticed there was blood on the inside of the car where Tatyana had been sitting.”

Sullivan said Tomlinson moved to Maine from New York to get out of a bad relationship, had been living on her own in Chelsea for four months and was running a website selling hair extensions.

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DeVoll asked for $25,000 cash bail for Tomlinson, citing a lack of ties to the state and various addresses in the Bronx and Brooklyn. DeVoll also said Tomlinson has a criminal record that includes an assault in 2015 in New York and other charges of menacing with a weapon and intent to cause bodily injury.

She also said there is a warrant for Tomlinson’s arrest from New York, but that the Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office has yet to file a fugitive from justice charge because it wants first to deal with the Maine charge.

Mullen set bail at $10,000 cash for Wendell H. Bazemore, 29, of New York, who is charged with unlawful trafficking in heroin.

Conditions of Bazemore’s bail include a curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and prohibit him from having illegal drugs and leaving the state without the court’s permission.

Baghdoyan said the one-paragraph affidavit by Maine State Trooper Niles Krech indicates only that Bazemore was arrested at Hill Street Apartments, Farmingdale.

“It doesn’t say he possessed anything or had anything on him,” Baghdoyan said. “Police broke down the door at 4 in the morning to execute a search warrant.”

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Baghdoyan said the affidavit says only that heroin and packaging materials were found in the back bedroom. “It doesn’t say who’s in the back bedroom.”

Baghdoyan said Bazemore’s family might be able to raise $10,000 for his bail. “Essentially the guy from New York is the guy who gets blamed because there’s drugs in some other woman’s apartment in Maine,” Baghdoyan said.

DeVoll asked for $50,000 cash bail, saying 13 grams of heroin were found. She said the state was concerned that Bazemore might not have given his correct name. Documents show he was carrying a non-driver New York ID without a photo, but the ID also says the person is 5-foot-4, and the defendant is visibly taller than that.

Bazemore told the judge he could get identification confirmation sent to Maine immediately.

DeVoll also said Bazemore has convictions for possession of forged instruments, identification theft and robbery.

Mullen ordered Courtney Peaslee, 24, of Farmingdale, who is charged with unlawful trafficking in heroin and violating conditions of release, held on $5,000 cash bail, but agreed it could be reviewed at a later date.

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Attorney Lisa Whittier, representing Peaslee, said Peaslee is scheduled to enter an in-patient drug treatment program. DeVoll said bail could be arranged to allow that if she saw proof that Peaslee was to be admitted for treatment.

Whittier too objected to the affidavit that led to Peaslee’s arrest. “It doesn’t say where anybody was located; it doesn’t say where the drugs were located.”

Bail for Megan Woodcock, 18, who is charged with unlawful trafficking in drugs, was set at $2,000 cash or $2,000 unsecured with a Maine PreTrial Services contract. Mullen also imposed conditions prohibiting her from possessing scheduled drugs and alcohol, the latter because of her age. She was also banned from contact with Peaslee, Swift, Lindsay Traynum and Bazemore.

DeVoll sought $5,000 cash bail, saying Woodcock was in the Hill Street apartment when police raided it. DeVoll said Woodcock had no adult criminal record.

A woman in the courtroom who identified herself as Woodcock’s mother told the judge her daughter had been in the apartment because she was homeless, but that the mother now had secured housing for them in Randolph.

Lindsay Traynum, 31, of Sidney, pleaded not guilty to charges of misuse of a public instrument and violating conditions of release that allegedly occurred Friday in Chelsea.

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Mullen set her bail at $200 cash or $200 unsecured with a Maine Pretrial Services contract.

Sullivan said the affidavit was thin in this case also. “It says she had somebody else’s EBT card. It doesn’t say where or when.”

Traynum is currently on bail on charges of unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, and DeVoll said Traynum also is on probation for drug possession.

Peaslee, Woodcock, and Bazemore were all arrested in the raid at the Hill Street Apartments.

While Traynum was arrested along with the others, she was not charged Monday in connection with that case.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

 


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