By Judy Harrison
Bangor Daily News
BANGOR — The local man charged with stabbing a Bradford man and causing a police officer to break his leg remained Wednesday night in maximum security at the Penobscot County Jail unable to post $20,000 cash bail.
Andrew Stephen Borg, 36, of Bangor is charged with elevated aggravated assault, a Class A crime; aggravated assault, a Class B crime; criminal threatening, a Class C crime; and domestic violence assault, a Class D crime. He allegedly stabbed a Bradley man and then assaulted police officers when they arrived at Borg’s Hammond Street apartment Tuesday to investigate a report of a domestic fight that involved a knife.
Borg appeared calm Wednesday afternoon when he appeared before District Court Judge E. Mary Kelly at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor. Dressed in a red jumpsuit - indicating he was being held in a maximum-security area of the jail - and with long brown hair flowing over his shoulders, Borg politely answered the judge’s questions.
Kelly set bail at $20,000 cash as requested by Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County. Aaron Frey, the Bangor attorney who represented Borg at Wednesday’s hearing, argued for lesser bail. Borg said that he had only recently returned to work after not having a job for several months and could not afford such a high bail.
Kelly said that in light of Borg’s history of domestic violence and the severity of the charges, a high cash bail was warranted.
Borg’s next court date is Feb. 15. If his case is not resolved on that day, his trial will be held March 7.
Bangor police were dispatched about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday to an apartment building located on the corner of Hammond and Ohio streets, Sgt. Paul Edwards said in a press release issued Tuesday evening.
Information about what might have led to the stabbing was not available Wednesday.
Officers Tim Shaw and Jim Dearing arrived first and “noticed a large amount of blood in the common hallway” of the apartment house, Edwards said in the press release. When the officers confronted Borg, he “wielded a baseball bat” at them.
Borg eventually surrendered the bat to Shaw and Dearing, but he became combative when they tried to arrest him, according to Edwards.
“During the struggle to arrest Mr. Borg, he was grounded by the officers but continued to fight and was able to kick a large cast-iron radiator that was unsecured against a wall, and that radiator fell onto Officer Jim Dearing’s legs,” Edwards said.
Dearing broke his left leg and was carried out of the building by fellow officers and taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he was treated and then released.
The blood in the hallway came from stab wounds allegedly inflicted by Borg on a 32-year-old Bradford man. The stabbing victim left before officers arrived and somehow made his way to EMMC, according to police.
Edwards on Tuesday described the stabbing victim’s wounds as not life-threatening. A nursing supervisor at EMMC on Wednesday said she had no information on the victim.
It is the practice of the Bangor Daily News not to release the names of the victims of crimes.
If convicted of the elevated aggravated assault charge, which is related to the stabbing, Borg faces up to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. In addition, Borg faces up to 10 years and a fine of up to $20,000 for the assault on Dearing.
He also faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $5,000 for swinging the bat at the officers and up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000 for the domestic violence assault.
Copyright 2010 Bangor Daily News