AUGUSTA — A man from China who assaulted three police officers, including kicking two of them, biting another and driving a short distance with an officer hanging on to his car window, pleaded guilty to several felony charges Monday as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Brent Elisens, 37, was sentenced to seven years in prison, with all suspended except the 54 days he has served. As part of the deal, Elisens must undergo mental health treatment.

Brent Elisens Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office photo

Elisens was arrested in September 2021 after he stopped on Route 3 in China and confronted Shawn Porter, a state trooper who works for the Maine State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit and had a truck driver, whom Elisens did not know, pulled over for a traffic stop.

Police said at the time that Elisens had previously confronted other law enforcement officers in Kennebec and Waldo counties, and he had been warned in those interactions that he could be charged with obstructing government administration.

Elisens asked why Porter had pulled the truck over, to which Porter responded it was none of his business and he needed to leave, police said. After being warned that he needed to leave or be arrested, Elisens left but circled the block a few times, police said, and then stopped again — while visibly upset — next to Porter’s state police cruiser. Porter then told Elisens he was being placed under arrest, according to officials.

Prosecutor Frank Griffin, the deputy district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, said Elisens got out of his vehicle and, as ordered, placed his hands behind his back. Elisens, however, then said he was not going to prison and kicked Porter in the chest.

Elisens got into his vehicle and, with Porter in his window trying to open the car’s door, placed the vehicle into gear, squealed the tires and began to drive off, with Porter still in the window, until Porter let go.

Elisens stopped his vehicle after traveling a short distance. While being taken into custody by state police, who had arrived as backup, Elisens then bit one officer and kicked another.

Elisens said in court, “Whenever I bit (Neagle), it was giving him a taste of his own medicine.”

Elisens also criticized officers’ use of police dogs.

Elisens pleaded guilty to three counts of assault on an officer and one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon — his vehicle.

Griffin said District Attorney Maeghan Maloney and Andrew Dawson, Elisens’ lawyer, spent a significant amount of time discussing the case and reaching the plea agreement.

Griffin said the law enforcement officers who are the victims in the case “are not happy” about the sentence. However, he said, the plea deal is focused on treatment, with Elisens required to undergo mental health treatment to comply with the terms of his two years of probation.

The probation conditions also ban him from having any contact with the victims in the case. If he does not heed those conditions, he could be required to serve the entire seven-year sentence.

Griffin said the district attorney’s office also agreed not to prosecute three other potential cases, two of them alleged assault cases, as part of the plea agreement.

Dawson said he had spent a significant amount of time working with Maloney to resolve the case.

Elisens, who previously indicated he wished to represent himself in court, said Monday he was satisfied with Dawson’s representation of him.

“It’s rare a public defender expends this much time and energy,” Elisens said.

Elisens’ parents were at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta for the hearing, though they did not address the court.

Elisens asked Superior Court Justice Daniel Mitchell to place a “gag order” on the Kennebec Journal reporter covering the case. Mitchell declined, noting that court proceedings are public.

Asked by Mitchell if he believes he would have been convicted if his case went to trial, Elisens said, “Yes, especially because people in Maine are very very pro boot,” an apparent reference to being proponents of law enforcement.

(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate information about the sentence of Brent Elisens. Elisens was sentenced, on multiple charges, to a total of up to seven years in prison, with all but 54 days suspended, and four years probation. It was a reporting error.)