SWANVILLE, Maine — Police arrested a Waldo man after three improvised chemical explosives were thrown earlier this month at the property of a Waldo County Sheriff’s Office detective.
One of the homemade bombs detonated, according to Joe Thomas, assistant Maine state fire marshal, but no one was injured.
Jesse Newton, 24, of Waldo has been charged with criminal use of explosives, a Class C crime.
The bombs were thrown at Detective Merl Reed’s Oak Hill Road property in Swanville at some point during the evening of Jan. 4. Thomas described them as “overpressure devices” of the type that’s often referred to as a soda acid bomb. The explosives are chemical mixtures generally placed in a three-liter soda bottle, along with some aluminum foil. The combination should create gas which fills the bottle with pressure, causing it to burst, he said.
“Usually, this type is more for the noise effect, but it can cause damage. No question about it,” Thomas said.
The biggest potential problem would stem from the mixed chemicals being inhaled, he said.
The Waldo County Sheriff’s Office notified the Maine state fire marshal’s office that night and investigators came to the home the next day. An agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also assisted with the investigation, which is now closed.
Newton was booked at Waldo County Jail in Belfast, and his bail has been set at $100,000 surety or $15,000 cash, according to Waldo County Deputy District Attorney Eric Walker. Newton is being represented by attorney Steve Peterson of Rockport.
Walker wrote in an email that there is a possibility that the U.S. Attorney’s Office may decide to prosecute the case federally.
The ATF agent said he could not comment on the case. Information about Newton’s motive in the alleged attack was not available Tuesday.
BDN archives show that Newton has had several drug-related convictions in the past few years.
Reed is a longtime officer who also serves as Stockton Springs Police Department supervisor. He is known around the county for making presentations to school and other groups with the department’s drug-sniffing dog, Neva.
Newton remained in custody Tuesday night at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, according to a Waldo County Jail official.
All those youtube videos showing diet coke mixed with mentos should be pulled down right away so the big bad ATF doesn’t bust them! What a joke to get all the government agents involved in nothing more than party poppers! Its time to put the brakes on every police dept. having overarmed swat teams and start to regionalize these teams.
I think you are confusing the harmless yet messy diet coke for the cleaning solution one.
No such thing as an “overarmed SWAT team”……and what hat did you pull that out of?
Your left wing beanie & propeller hat?
Perhaps put the brakes on your mouth.
I’ve read his comment a couple of times and still don’t see where he mentions SWAT. And you are confusing videos of mentos and diet coke where no of the bottles are capped with a contained mixture of chemicals under increasing pressure. The same mixture that put two cops in the hospital when they went to investigate multiple complaints of bombs going off.
Hmm, your over-reaction is much like the one described in the story. BTW many would find my post as anything but liberal. I just try to see all sides of a story. God bless you.
yes there is, you might not feel the way you do when they start doing drone strikes.
Drone Strikes???
You cannot really believe that.
seems far reaching now dosent it. but in the last 10 years we’ve seen the armaments and tactics of police forces go from actual law enforcement to military. Every time someone is arrested in their home now they face a similar scenario of the raid on osama compound. Some jurisdictions are already using drones to monitor traffic and other surveillance duties, which is exactly how the military started using them. Its not hard to imagine that in the years to come drones used by the police will be used in the same manner that our government uses them today.
Really?….Yeah let’s reorganize, and restrict, and oversee, and micro manage, and disarm the people who are paid to protect us from predatory people who would do us harm. Then when we get the police to the point were they have authority in name only, the party can start. Where is it that you live? Just curious, you know, so when the cops don’t have the authority to stop me because they’ve been disarmed………
Hmm, asking for regional swat teams instead of every police dept having them and you claim I want to disarm the police? I hope cooler heads are on these teams.
You’re the one who says they are overarmed. Most of the people up north have more firepower of their own than these tac team guys carry. Maybe it’s different down south in the other Maine. The only tac teams in Aroostook are the SO. and State Police. Given the size of the county, I would say that’s spread rather thin.
An agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also assisted with the investigation, which is now closed.
Oh its not the ATF anymore now its the ATF’nE
Absolutly rediculous. How many thousands of dollars did that cost the taxpayers. State and every cop within 100 miles, bomb squad, homeland security, millions of dollars worth of equipment which will have to be serviced and some replaced. This stuff has to be stopped.
FIREWORKS ARE LEGAL
actually its illegal for someone without a proper license to manufacture any type of fireworks, and I’m doubting that that a device featuring a coke bottle would justify the cost of the license.
Its also illegal to maliciously use any type firework. So I think the negative aspects are pretty much covered.
Obviously they were not meant to cause physical harm as the container used was a plastic bottle, if pipe was used that would be a different story.
Yes its designed to cause harm. The plastic can cause injury. Why dont you try building one and see what happens? The chemical mixture alone can kill you.
Baking soda and vinegar? I used to play with that stuff in 3 grade science class. Maybe not under pressure, but just the same. You’d have to one unlucky sob to be injured with a plastic soda bottle. Maybe dropping a full bottle on a naked toe.
Oh please the cap probably blew off, if this person had intent to cause physical harm or damage then it dosen’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how. i.e. metal casing
This state is getting ridiculous – total lawlessness. Put this guy away for a long time.
I posted it many times over the past 6 months, many of you called me names,many called me overreacting. I posted when fireworks become legal on January 1st, fireworks will be the most controvertible issue in Maine in a century. The legalization of fireworks will be 1,000,000 times the controversy of the mural
Fireworks have been legal for just two weeks.
Already there have been two major fireworks/homemade bombs news stories already, this one and the one in framington Two weeks of legalized fireworks in Maine, two weeks of problems already.
Soon, the non stop news stories of maine kids seriously hurt by legalized fireworks,kids with faces and arms and fingers blown off, will be on the nightly news.
Maine has enough problems. Legalizing fireworks was asking for more. The more problems have begun.
This got nothing to do with fireworks.
That’s what they said about the Farmington case, it was not fireworks. When the story was updated a week later, the fire chief called it homemade fireworks.
Legalizing fireworks have put ideas in the crazies in this state
….
The law IS “the crazies”..
The chief does not know what it is, he called it homemade fireworks because he is against them and wanted to twist the story into an example to push an agenda. Again, it is illegal either way to manufacture them without a license.
There will be more than enough examples legalizing fireworks was a BIG mistake
Just wait til a maine mother is on channel 2 or 6, crying her eyes out about her child was hurt ,even killed by fireworks …
So making them illegal again would stop people from making homemade fireworks? Don’t think thats how it works….
So are the e.r’s in New Hampshire stuffed daily with little kids and severed fingers? Or are you implying we Mainers just aren’t as clever as our southern neighbors?
This story has nothing to do with pyrotechnic devices, the other story had nothing to do with them either. People are caught all the time in maine with homemade bombs and legalizing fireworks does not concern them.
The suspect in the story would love to get you on his jury if you believe his homemade “bomb” is just “fireworks” or most likely a “noisemaker”.
…..
I don’t live in Maine anymore, so I have to ask if you people can buy a ‘3 liter soda bottle’?
It could make for a 50% bigger bang than our 2 liter ones.
The do sell them, just most stores do not carry them. You’ll typically see them at Sam’s Club and sometimes Walmart where they carry quanity.The bigger, the better, right? :)
That’s what I hear :) but in the case of soda, 3 litres would go flat before my shrunken brood got through it all!