AUGUSTA — A city man accused of urinating in an officer’s cruiser en route to jail last week pleaded guilty Tuesday to a host of drug and theft charges, including a criminal mischief charge related to that cruiser incident.

Scott Forest Holbrook, 54, of Augusta, was ordered to serve an initial 18 months in prison, with the remainder of the six-year sentence suspended while he spends three years on probation.

Holbrook, who had been in custody since Oct. 23, pleaded with the judge at the Capital Judicial Center to free him for a week so he could secure his upholsterer’s tools. Holbrook said that would allow him restart his business when he is released and begin to pay the almost $5,000 in restitution ordered for a theft from American Aerial Inc.

“I run my own little business,” Holbrook said. “I just kind of let it go when my wife and I separated earlier this year.”

He said that’s when his problems began: “It was a mess, your honor.”

Holbrook said he has lost his home to foreclosure.

Advertisement

“I can’t lose my upholstery stuff or I won’t have a job,” he said. “All I need is seven days, your honor. I’ll be a model citizen.”

Justice William Stokes rejected that stay, saying that once a defendant was in custody and sentenced, it was “not good practice” to allow the person back on the street.

“Mr. Holbrook, you have no one to blame but yourself,” Stokes told him, adding, “You’re an adult. It’s time to pay the price for your conduct.”

Stokes also told Holbrook that he was suspending almost $2,000 in fines “to free up your resources, which I suspect are limited, to make restitution.”

Both the prosecutor on the drug charges, Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley, and Assistant District Attorney Tyler LeClair, who prosecuted seven other offenses, objected to any stay in Holbrook’s jail sentence.

“A significant number of crimes were committed when he was out on bail,” Sibley said.

Advertisement

At a prior bail hearing, Sibley told a judge that Holbrook’s criminal record dates to a 1994 robbery and a 1996 gross sexual assault.

Holbrook pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful trafficking in heroin and unlawful trafficking in cocaine base, both of which occurred May 9 in Augusta. Additional trafficking charges from May 21 were dismissed in exchange for the pleas to the others.

He also pleaded guilty to multiple charges of assault, theft criminal mischief and violation of condition of release that occurred in the period of March 20 to Oct. 23, all in Augusta.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: