FRIENDSHIP — Two Friendship men have been charged with sinking a fellow lobsterman’s boat late last year.
Jason T. Weeks, 41, was arrested Monday and charged with Class C aggravated criminal mischief and Class B theft. He was taken to the Knox County Jail in Rockland. He made his initial appearance in Knox County Court on Wednesday and Judge Paul Mathews set bail at $2,500 cash. Weeks was being held at the jail Wednesday night.
Lyndon R. Harrington, 45, was arrested May 20 for aggravated criminal mischief and theft. He was released on $10,000 unsecured bail.
The two are accused of the Dec. 16 sinking of a 34-foot wooden lobster boat, Rotten Hog, owned by Rodney Genthner II.
An affidavit filed in court by Maine Marine Patrol Officer John Luellen details the investigation that led to the arrest warrants for the pair. The affidavit does not give a motive for the sinking.
Genthner had reported to the Marine Patrol on the morning of Dec. 16 that his lobster boat was missing from LWG Lobster in Friendship Harbor, where he had left it the night before.
At 2 p.m. that day, the vessel was located under water near Cow Island. Holes were found to have been drilled in the hull.
Marine Patrol investigators reviewed surveillance videos and one showed an unidentified person in a skiff near the Rotten Hog early in the morning of Dec. 16. The lobster boat can be seen drifting away from the dock. Another video from a nearby dock shows Harrington on the dock going to his boat late the previous night.
The Marine Patrol also said the investigation found messages between Harrington and Weeks indicating they were working together the night and early morning that the boat was stolen and sunk. In one Facebook message, there were the letters FTW which the officer said stood for “for the win.”
Damage to the boat exceeded $2,000, the criminal complaints said.
Harrington is represented by attorney Philip Cohen of Waldoboro. Weeks is represented by attorney Eric “Rick” Morse of Rockland.
Harrington’s next court date is July 8.
Friendship Harbor has a history of skirmishes over lobster fishing territory.
In an apparently unrelated dispute over lobster traps last year, a Friendship lobsterman was convicted for setting a fire that destroyed a lobster boat and boat house in Waldoboro.
And in 2012, someone tried to scuttle two lobster boats that were moored in Friendship Harbor and owned by lobstermen from Cushing.
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