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First appeared Oct. 3, 2002
Orono police are still searching for suspects in the assault of Michael Curtis that occurred on Sept. 22. A University of Maine student, Jarred Barnes, has been arrested in conjunction with the incident for withholding evidence.
Curtis said in an interview that he went to bed at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.
“[I was] hearing the sounds of a party, which is not an infrequent thing to hear at my house,” Curtis said.
At 2:15 a.m. the party was still going on, and Curtis called the Orono Police Department with a noise complaint. At 3:10 a.m. Curtis called the police again, as the party had not quieted down.
“While on the phone, my wife had all she could take,” Curtis said.
While Curtis was on the phone with the police, his wife told the students to take the party in the house. The neighbors answered with profanities, Curtis said.
Curtis said he went outside and doesn’t remember if he made it as far as the sidewalk before he was struck in the face.
“I frankly don’t remember much,” Curtis said. “I was lying on the grass and there was at least two guys punching and kicking me and I think there [was] another that I don’t know if he was trying to help or something.”
Curtis said he then remembered that the police were on the phone and he was standing in front of his house. The next thing he remembered was being at the hospital.
Curtis suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and several bruises.
He said he had not heard Barnes’ side of the story, but wants to see the perpetrators come to justice.
“I would like to know who did this,” Curtis said. “I’m an overweight 50-year-old with bare feet. I’m not a fighting person.”
Curtis’ family is also coping with this difficult experience, his wife, Nancy Hall, said.
Their two children were not home the evening of the incident, Hall said.
The Orono Police Department is chasing leads, according to Capt. Lynwood Green.
“We are conducting interviews to see if we can’t track down the suspects,” Capt. Green said.
Barnes, Curtis’s neighbor, found Curtis after the assault in his yard and was upstairs in his apartment during the time of the incident, Barnes said.
“They [the Orono Police Department] were on a witch hunt and they needed to arrest someone, so I believe I was their scapegoat,” Barnes said.
Barnes said he had not been home that night and had been at a local dance club. He returned home and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. A friend of his went downstairs to have a cigarette and alerted him of the commotion.
When Barnes, a female friend and another friend came downstairs, they found Curtis in his yard after the assault. Barnes said he ran back inside his apartment to see if anyone knew what had happened.
“No one at my house saw what happened,” Barnes said.
Barnes said he came right back outside and the police had already arrived. Barnes said that he answered the officers’ questions and tried to help.
“They thought it was me because I was there,” Barnes said. “I wish I hadn’t spoken with them. I gave my statement and they didn’t believe it and they charged me. I was trying to help them out,” he said.
“They claim that I know the person or persons that committed this act of violence,” Barnes said. “They never gave, or told me the evidence that they had. I feel that when I go to court the DA will see this and my case will be dropped.”
Barnes said that he has been slandered against in television, radio and newspapers.
“What happened to Mr. Curtis was tragic and heinous,” Barnes said. “I feel really bad [about] what happened to him. It just sucks it happened in front of our house.”
