BELFAST, Maine — Police arrested a man after he made an obscene gesture at his ex-girlfriend Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot of a Belfast drugstore.
Craig Sullivan, 22, of Morril, allegedly extended his middle finger, or flipped the bird, at the woman at about 1 p.m. outside the Walgreens on Main Street. The gesture was in violation of the protection order the woman has against Sullivan, according to Belfast Police Chief Mike McFadden.
“He clapped his hands to get the protected person’s attention. He gives the protected person the finger,” the chief said Thursday. “The protected person said, ‘That’s a violation of the protection order.’ He said, ‘They’re not going to arrest me for that.’ Well, guess what?”
There are already laws in place to prohibit a person from harassing, terrorizing or tormenting others, the chief said. But protection orders are intended to prevent any kind of contact, direct or indirect, with the protected party.
“This is just a classic example of why a protection order was issued,” McFadden said. “When it says no contact, it means no contact.”
The ex-girlfriend called police to report the violation of the protection order, and a Maine State Police trooper went to Sullivan’s home in Morrill later that night.
McFadden believes Sullivan did not think it was possible to be arrested for making the gesture at his ex-girlfriend because the trooper found a pot pipe in his pants.
“I believe if he thought it was possible, he would have taken the pot pipe out of his pocket,” McFadden said.
Sullivan was arrested and charged with violation of his conditions of release from a prior offense, violation of a protection order, and sale and use of drug paraphernalia.
According to Belfast police, Sullivan was arrested in September 2011 for having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl earlier in the year.
He was charged with five counts of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of possession of sexually explicit material, according to police records.
He was taken to Waldo County Jail in Belfast on Wednesday, where he remained in police custody Thursday.
A jail official said Sullivan is being held without bail because he violated the conditions of release from the prior offense.
Good. Thank you Maine judicial system.
Gotta be kiddin’ me. Taking from someone who has been stalked, the bird doesn’t mean harm, means mad. Not saying it’s classy, but still……………I’m taking up for the guy in this one and I’m a female.
The gestures and proximity were all about intimidation, That’s pretty clear, Not sure how you can defend him.
Well, the more times this fellow draws attention to himself with this type of behavior …
the more times he gets his picture in the BDN the easier he will be to spot, when he gets inside the jail in Warren for the arrest r/t 14 year old.
Actually it was about contact/communication with the young lady…he crossed the line. No contact means no contact like the chief said.
It is not the action but the act that this guy in trouble. If you can’t have contact with someone and you have contact with them, you violated the law.
Too bad it doesnt say if this is the 14yr old girl he abused or someone in general that is under 16.
The law allows him to be arrested for that, he made contact in some way with her. Kind of stupid but that is law
I kind of felt the same way…..Unless he was up in her face giving her the finger I wouldn’t be threatened by my ex giving me the bird protection order or not….Good thing Belfast cops don’t have anything better to do I guess…
he’s a pedo how you going to side with him. no matter what he does he should be locked up
Maybe you are to cavilear about your own stalking. “Mad” can very EASILY lead to more harmful things. Don’t let this go-n fool you.
The gesture was in violation of the protection order the woman has against Sullivan. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near her.
…..
Ok is this the same guy that was a pedophile? He is screwed and should be. Kinda like the OJ case they did not convict him of Nicole, But they really trumped up the punishment for the next thing he was caught doing. Great job police,
Do you mean this one
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/09/26/news/midcoast/belfast-man-accused-of-sexually-abusing-14-year-old-girl/?ref=relatedBox
Yes look like the same dood to me.
Give me a break, our tax dollars hard at work.
You ever heard of Dexter, ME?
Apparently he is not over her, how childish and let it be a lesson to others who think they can violate the law and intimidate you. Kudos to the ME State PD. A restraining order means no contact.
Maybe he was flipping someone else off that was close to her.
Really?? Waste of time and my tax dollars…wow
Thank you lsumom! That story was marvelous.
He made an intentional effort to attract her attention by clapping his hand until she looked at him then conveyed a direct message by flipping her the bird. It’s pretty simple.
And then told the person the cops wouldn’t arrest him for that.
First of all the article probably isn’t correct in the reasoning WHY he was charged with violating the protection order. All protection orders have a distance requirement. As an example Joe Mo shall not be within 150 yrds of Mary Doe. Likely IF he was close enough for her to hear him CLAP he was within the boundaries of the restraining order. Just because it’s written that he got arrested for flipping the bird… doesn’t mean the headline wasn’t written just to entice us to open it and read it. Reporting liberty a constant at the BDN!
It doesn’t really say he got arrested for flipping the bird. It says he was arrested *after* flipping the bird. He could have been arrested for saying hello.
No contact means no contact! And he deliberately got her attention.
I don’t care if they arrest him for looking funny, I’m just glad he’s locked up tonight.
‘another one bites the dust’!!! hope he stays in jail for a l-o-n-g time.
aaaahhhhhh heres to our up and coming youth.. we have so much to look forward to
Sorry but the cops blew that one. Simply flipping someone the bird, regardless or a protection order (both people are permitted in public) extending one’s middle finger is a protected form of free speech GUARANTEED by the US Supreme Court in 1973 or 1974.
It was the contact, not the content. He also would have been arrested for speaking to her, free speech or not.
Guess what , he will be found guilty because in the courts opinion he was harasing her and thats a violation of a protection order. Have sit on a case identical to this 7 years ago and he was foung guilty !
come on he flipped the bird, put me on that jury and i will let him off!!!
He was harassing someone who had a protection order against them, it’s not about him giving the middle finger, he was trying to intimidate. It’s too bad BDN used the headline that they did and that they didn’t say why she had the protection order to begin with; maybe then more people would take this seriously…
This is not the first time someone has been arrested for the same reason, the state gets to make money off this. He will have a fine for violating the protection order and violation of bail conditions, its a double dip for the state because they make the bail conditions the same as the protection order. There is a room in the new court house in Bangor just for violation of protection orders because they generate so much money for the state !
As Dale Earnhardt used to say…” I was only telling him he was # 1 .
Guess you could say he got fingered for the crime!
If this was a woman flipping the bird, would she be arrested too? Would she be charged
for messing with a 14 year old boy? Women molest boys and abuse and threaten men all the time. Rarely do women get in trouble for a protection order violation no matter what they do. Rarely are they arrested, charged, prosecuted, or ever see jail. Women are called
“victims”, just ask the Governor, and they often get away with MURDER in Maine.
Mean while around a corner just afew yards away……………….