AUGUSTA — A Fayette man accused of shooting into a neighbor’s farm stand as well as firing into the ground denied those charges Wednesday in front of a judge.
Matthew Brigham, 31, pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges: reckless conduct, criminal mischief and discharge of a firearm near a dwelling, all allegedly occurring Monday in Fayette.
Brigham was arrested Tuesday by Maine State Police Trooper Travis Luce after several neighbors reported seeing a man with a gun and hearing several gunshots.
In an affidavit filed in support of an arrest warrant, Luce said a Fellows Farm Road resident described watching Brigham fire his gun into the air several times and then shoot into a nearby farm stand and finally fire a shot into the ground.
Luce’s affidavit said Brigham departed only after the neighbor grabbed his own .22-caliber rifle, confronted Brigham and ordered him to leave.
Another neighbor said Brigham previously had threatened people with a gun. She told the trooper that she found two of her turkeys injured and left bleeding, but none of the charges filed against Brigham involved turkeys. In an interview with Luce, Brigham denied shooting turkeys.
Brigham allowed troopers to confiscate his weapons.
He later told Luce that he had fired his .20-gauge shotgun into the air to scare a rabid raccoon, and then retrieved his .22-caliber rifle from the car and “fired five or six times at random,” according to Luce’s affidavit.
At Brigham’s arraignment via video from the jail to the Capital Judicial Center, Justice Donald Marden set Brigham’s bail at $500 cash with conditions that he have no contact with the neighbors identified as victims and prohibited him from possessing firearms.
Brigham was released from the jail on bail shortly after that, and his case is set for a dispositional conference on Nov. 14. Brigham told the judge he had applied for a court-appointed attorney.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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