As the youth accused of vandalizing the former Crow’s Nest building in Presque Isle enter the court system, those responsible for the Mantle Lake Park destruction this summer are about to start probation with a host of conditions and many hours of community service.
The four juveniles accused of causing approximately $8,500 in damage at Mantle Lake Park in June have pled guilty to aggravated criminal mischief, a Class C felony, and criminal trespass, a Class E misdemeanor, according to Assistant District Attorney Kari Wells-Puckett.
On the night before Father’s Day this past summer, the youth allegedly destroyed the kitchen at the Presque Isle park’s pavilion and left graffiti with racial slurs, Nazi swastikas, drug symbols and multiple vulgarities, among other things.
Four months later, three of the juveniles have been adjudicated and one more is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 3.
By meeting a number of conditions, Wells-Puckett said the youth will be able to avoid incarceration at the Long Creek Development Center in South Portland, Maine’s youth detention facility.
Two of the juveniles received a disposition of indeterminate to age 19, all suspended, and one year probation, while the other two received a disposition of indeterminate to age 20, all suspended, and one year probation.
“This means that they are sentenced to go to the youth center but they do not have to go at this time as long as they do well on their probation,” Wells-Puckett explained in an email. “If they violate the terms of the probation, the judge may send them to the youth center until the ages indicated.”
The probation terms require the youth to each perform 150 hours of community service, collectively pay $8,500 in restitution to the city of Presque Isle, and write individual letters to the Presque Isle community and volunteers who cleaned up the park. Other standard conditions include remaining free of further criminal activity and drug or alcohol consumption, with random search and drug testing.
They will also have to read and write essays on “Night”, the book by the late Elie Wiesel on his experience surviving the Auschwitz and Buchenwald Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. (In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Presque Isle also saw multiple incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism and harassment directed at the former Aroostook Hebrew Community Center and local Jewish families.)
The Mantle Lake Park vandalism shocked the local community and raised concerns about the behavioral well-being of local kids — concerns that continue in the wake of the former Crow’s Nest building suffering some $217,000 in damages allegedly at the hands of five local juveniles.
Those youth, ranging in age from 13 to 16, are set to appear in Presque Isle District Court on Nov. 3 and face charges of aggravated criminal mischief and burglary, both Class C felony crimes. As with the youth charged in the Mantle Lake vandalism, the individuals are not identified by authorities because they are under the age of 18.
The youth accused of vandalizing the vacant Crow’s Nest building are currently in the custody of their parents after being placed on conditions of release following their arrest, according to Wells-Puckett. She added that they will face similar penalties and restitution as the youth who plead guilty to vandalizing Mantle Lake Park, including the possibility of incarceration.
