A man serving life in prison for fatally shooting an on-duty Maine sheriff’s deputy in 2018 has requested a new trial after learning that one of the police officers who arrested him was disciplined a day before testifying about his case in court.
John D. Williams, who was convicted in June 2019 for murdering Somerset County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Eugene Cole, alleged that the Maine attorney general’s office failed to tell his defense attorney about the officer’s recent discipline, despite the fact prosecutors had a constitutional obligation to provide him with any information that could be used to question the credibility of officers testifying in his case.
It’s not clear if the Maine State Police punished Trooper Tyler Maloon for conduct related to Williams’ trial. However, Williams would have been entitled to the disciplinary records regardless, his lawyer, Verne Paradie Jr., argued in the Feb. 12 motion in Cumberland County Superior Court. What’s more, the timing of the discipline suggests the Maine State Police punished Maloon for misbehavior related to the treatment of his client, he said. READ MORE
Another Mainer has died as health officials on Friday reported 134 more coronavirus cases across the state.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 2,425. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. That’s down from 2,291 on Thursday.
A Washington County resident succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 656.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 141.1, down from 148.6 a day ago, down from 207.6 a week ago and down from 663.4 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3. READ MORE
Maine is discouraging health providers from putting people not yet eligible for the coronavirus vaccine on waitlists even as some continue to do so in preparation for future phases.
The shift came in a Feb. 8 memo to providers roughly three weeks after the state opened vaccines to Mainers 70 and older, which led to a crush of requests for appointments. Some providers also developed pre-registration lists for ineligible people because of that. At MaineHealth, the state’s largest health provider, 121,000 people are waiting for slots.
State health officials said on Thursday holding off on registering people until they are eligible helps manage expectations, couching it as an effort to maintain trust in the system as supply remains mostly static. But it may bring peace of mind to many and hospitals say keeping a list of interested people helps them gauge vaccine interest and manage requests for appointments. READ MORE
After a record year for Maine real estate, house sales continued to surge in the first month of 2021.
According to new figures released by the Maine Association of Realtors, year-over-year sales jumped more than 18% in January, while median home prices were up nearly 16%, to than $255,000.
President-elect Madeleine Will says more than one-third of buyers are now from out-of-state so far this year, with many no longer just looking at southern Maine. READ MORE
bluShift Aerospace, which made world history in late January with the first commercial launch of a rocket powered by a bio-derived fuel, is already working on the next generation that could go higher and faster.
The Brunswick-based aerospace company is in the early stages of developing the Stardust 2.0, which will improve on the history-making Stardust 1.0’s design. The Stardust 1.0 is 20 feet tall, 14 inches in diameter, weighs about 650 pounds and cost approximately $1 million to build. The exact dimensions and cost of the next generation of rocket have not been determined yet.
After a series of weather delays, the Stardust 1.0 launched on Jan. 31 at the Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone, the former Loring Air Force Base, with three payloads. The small team of about eight was able to prove that their proprietary fuel was effective, and that the state is a viable spot for launches of this caliber. Now the team will use what they learned to build a bigger and faster rocket that can reach higher altitudes. READ MORE
