AUGUSTA — A defendant who repeatedly tried to exit a courtroom by a door that leads to the judges’ chambers Tuesday now faces two charges of assault on an officer.

Chanda D. Lilly, 23, of Augusta, is accused of kicking officers and scratching them with her fingernails as they tried to remove her Tuesday afternoon from the courtroom, where a couple dozen people were waiting for their cases to be heard.

The incident followed a brief hearing before Justice Nancy Mills about Lilly’s pending assault charge.

Her attorney, Stephen Bourget, who was with her, said, “She wanted to leave through the front door, which happened to be the door to chambers, and was detained.”

An affidavit by Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Palenski, filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, said Lilly tried to cross in front of the podium after her brief hearing, and a deputy stopped and redirected her.

“At this point, Chanda became combative and said she wanted to leave by the front of the court,” Palenski said.

As she was being led to the rear exit, she seemed to calm briefly “and then bolted toward the judge’s chambers,” Palenski said.

The judge was not in the courtroom when the incident occurred.

Palenski said he and another officer stopped her and as they escorted her out, she began screaming insults as well as fighting the officers. She was taken to jail.

A previous charge against Lilly of assault on an officer, stemming from an incident Aug. 3, 2012, at the Kennebec County jail, had been dismissed in the same court.

Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com

 

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