WINSLOW — A Warren man was summoned on several charges late Monday night after he drove his car into several customer cars at a repair shop and knocked over a utility pole.

Stephen J. Little Jr., 23, a convicted sex offender, was found in the woods after the accident and initially lied about whether he was the driver, police said. Also found in the woods was a bloodied 13-year-old girl who was a passenger in the vehicle and is somehow related to Little, police said.

Little was summoned on charges of driving after license suspension, leaving the scene of an aggravated motor vehicle accident, and leaving the scene of an accident involving injury.

Winslow Police Chief Jeffrey Fenlason said a 911 call came in shortly after 10 p.m. from a neighbor reporting that a car had hit a utility pole at Dr. Auto Repair on China Road. Officer Damon Lefferts found the caller with a flashlight and heard a girl screaming down a logging trail in the woods. She was found about 30 yards from the main road.

“The officer searched and found a 13-year-old girl bleeding profusely from the face and head, and she said she had been in a car crash,” Fenlason said. “Then the officer heard a guy — he wasn’t screaming; I’m not sure how he found him — in the woods.”

The man, Little, told Lefferts that he was upset at another man who had been driving the car when it crashed. Lefferts, however, determined that Little was the driver and the girl was a passenger, and there had not been another man in the car.

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“Little had some marks on him — a cut on his nose, which is consistent from being hit by the steering wheel, and abrasions on his elbows from the airbag,” Fenlason said.

The teenage girl was believed to be related to Little, but Fenlason didn’t know more details. The girl was taken by ambulance to MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Thayer Campus in Waterville for treatment of a severe head injury. Little refused medical treatment, Fenlason said.

Little was driving a 1996 Chrysler Sebring when it veered off the road and snapped a utility guard wire, bringing down a power line pole. His car then slammed into a parked car at Dr. Auto Repair, setting off a chain reaction involving five vehicles in all, according to Fenlason.

Three customer vehicles at the repair shop — a 2000 Toyota Sienna, a 2002 Buick Park Avenue and a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria — each sustained about $8,000 in damages.

Reggie Blanchard, owner of the repair shop, thinks the three vehicles are probably destroyed and said that either Little’s insurance or his business insurance would cover the damages.

“The first car went 15 feet and then pushed into a van, which hit another van,” Blanchard said. “The impact is unbelievable to move cars that distance. There was quite a carnage of debris out there.”

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Little is scheduled to answer the charges Oct. 4 in Waterville District Court.

According to the Maine Sex Offender Registry website, Little was convicted in Knox County Superior Court in Rockland of gross sexual assault involving a child under the age of 14. He was sentenced Dec. 14, 2006, to six years in prison with all but one year suspended, and was placed on probation for six years.

Because Little had completed his jail sentence, there were no stipulations against him having the 13-year-old girl as a passenger in his car, police said.

Scott Monroe — 861-9239

smonroe@centralmaine.com


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