A 51-year-old woman will be evaluated at Riverview Psychiatric Center following her arrest this week for hitting a Falmouth man with her car as he stood in his driveway.
At her initial appearance Wednesday in Portland Unified Criminal Court, Judge Thomas D. Warren ordered Paula Finlay held on $50,000 bail and to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Finlay, who has a history of mental illness, had been acting erratically and making delusional, paranoid statements, according to court records.
She is accused of aggravated assault, a class-B felony, as well as misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and violating the conditions of her release.
According to police documents filed in court, William Zinn, 47, of Foreside Road in Falmouth, called police Aug. 12 to report that he had been intentionally struck by a car.
Zinn told officers that he had returned home that night with his girlfriend and found Finlay’s 2013 Toyota Venza parked in his driveway.
Zinn had previously rented an apartment in Portland to Finlay, but he evicted her after one month.
Since the eviction, Finlay had been harassing Zinn, and he ultimately filed for a protection from harassment order against her, according to police.
Finlay did not respond to Zinn when he asked her why she was on his property, according to police. Instead, she turned her car around in an attempt to leave.
Zinn stood in front of the minivan, told Finlay not to leave, and that police were coming. She then rammed him with the vehicle, throwing him on top of the hood and into the windshield, shattering it, according to court records.
He was thrown from the car as Finlay drove out of the driveway and made an abrupt turn.
She fled the area, and police did not immediately locate her.
According to police records included in the court file, Finlay is the defendant in nine protection from harassment cases, and has been acting erratically. For months, she sent long, rambling emails to family members.
In the messages, some of which are included in the court file, Finlay blames some of her family’s problems on Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and asserts that she has a job with the Trump Administration for which she must move to Washington, D.C.
Police used cell phone tracking technology to locate her, as Finlay did not have a permanent address. She was apprehended in Willard Beach in South Portland Aug. 15.
Finlay is due back in court Oct. 25 for a dispositional conference.
Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:
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