SKOWHEGAN — A Somerset County man with a long history of run-ins with the law has been indicted on new criminal charges by a county grand jury.
In his second round of grand jury indictments this year, Robert L. “Bobby” Tucker, 46, of Anson, is charged with eight counts of burglary, seven counts of theft, two counts of stealing drugs, four counts of criminal mischief and one count of attempted theft, all between Sept. 29, 2014, and Nov. 15, 2015, in several Somerset County towns, according to court documents.
Tucker’s long history of criminal activity came to a crashing climax in early November after a chase with police that reached speeds of 100 mph.
Tucker’s arrest that day involved alleged criminal activity in three Maine counties, a car chase through three towns, two car accidents, multiple police and fire departments and, in the end, a hospital stay and possible return to prison. Tucker, whose dealings with police date back to the late 1980s, also was indicted by a grand jury in January, charging him with passing a roadblock, eluding an officer and criminal speed in the chase Nov. 2 with police down U.S. Route 201 from Madison to Skowhegan and finally to Cornville, where Tucker crashed his car into a tree on Huff Road.
The chase Nov. 2 began after Maine State Police detectives questioned Tucker at a home in Dixmont in Penobscot County in connection with a burglary in Troy in Waldo County. Tucker ran off and ended up in a 2002 Chevy Malibu, which police spotted a couple of hours later in Madison.
Sheriff’s deputies gave chase on Route 201, where a county patrol truck was damaged in an accident near the Skowhegan town line.
Tucker also was a “person of interest” in burglaries in the Hartland and St. Albans area, according to the sheriff’s office.
Police said at the time there would be more charges to come. The new indictments, released Monday, come as a result of the investigation into burglaries of camps and homes all across Somerset County.
Tucker was injured in the Nov. 2 crash and taken by helicopter from the scene to a hospital in Bangor. He was arrested by Somerset County sheriff’s detectives 10 days later at Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he had been listed in critical condition just days before.
After Tucker was spotted in Madison, Somerset County deputies and Skowhegan police gave chase, first up East Madison Road behind the Tractor Supply shopping plaza, then through East Madison village to Wood Road and across Route 150 to Revere School Road. From there the road is unpaved, and Tucker reduced his speed, according to police radio traffic.
Tucker continued down Oxbow Road in Cornville and across West Ridge Road to Huff Road, where the car swerved, skidded and sailed into a stand of trees. The pursuit had covered about 10 miles, Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said at the time.
State police, Cornville fire units, more county deputies and Skowhegan police arrived as emergency medical personnel removed Tucker from the car.
Later, inside Tucker’s vehicle at the crash site on Huff Road in Cornville, police found a face mask, rubber gloves and an Airsoft handgun along with other possibly stolen items, according to Lancaster.
The Chevy Malibu was totaled.
Tucker has a long history of convictions and also of fleeing from police, including a 1988 foot chase that ended when he was taken into custody at gunpoint in a barn loft off Molunkus Road and another in the early 1990s when he and his brother gave police the slip in Caratunk and ended in New Hampshire.
They attempted to dye their hair blond in North Conway, New Hampshire, but the color came out orange and they were spotted immediately and arrested.
During a “perp walk” from the old county jail in Skowhegan to old District Court on Water Street, the brothers’ orange hair matched their orange jump suits from the jail.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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