Corrected version: Bail set for accused in hit-and-run; prosecutor cites tampering of evidence
Other news: paid public parking coming to Quietside? Tremont, SWH move to fortify working waterfronts
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, July 29, 2023 - Did John Holdsworth try to cover up evidence of a negligent homicide in the hit-and-run death of a Tremont women here on the night of June 10 on Rt. 102?
"Despite the fact that the defendant did choose to turn himself in, a warrant had still been sought,” Hancock County district attorney’s office stated. “The serious nature, as well as the fact that there were deliberate actions taken to attempt to subvert the investigation, led the state to still seek a high cash bail.”
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Holdsworth, 31, was arrested Thursday and charged with manslaughter. The affidavit gave a Bar Harbor address as his legal residence but stated that he lived at 10 The Otter Way, Hancock.
Bail was set at $10,000. Holdsworth will appear in court again Nov. 16.
Friends who saw the truck damage late at night on June 10 outside of the Dog & Pony Tavern in Bar Harbor urged Holdsworth to return to the site of the collision to determine what he struck. They drove a friend’s car there and inspected the area where Holdsworth saw broken pieces of his truck and picked them up, police said.
They spotted a trash bag at the side of the road and surmised that that might have been what he struck, the police affidavit stated. They returned to Bar Harbor around 1:30 a.m.
The next day, two bicyclists found the body in a ditch on the north bound side of Rt. 102 between the Food Mart and Smuggler’s Den campgrounds, police said.
The state police crime lab found human tissues and blood stains on the exterior of John Holdsworth’s pickup truck which DNA tests confirmed belonged to Amber Robbins, the 35-year-old victim, according to the affidavit by state office investigator Dana Austin.
Holdsworth told police he attended a birthday party at MDI Lobster on Clark Point Road and drank two or three beers the night of June 10. He first told police he went to a friend’s house in Bar Harbor after he left the party. He later admitted to police he went to the tavern first.
The affidavit stated Holdsworth said he was distracted by a text message from his wife that night and looked away from the road and appeared to have struck something.
Cell phone data obtained by police confirmed that his wife texted him but it wasn’t until 11.29 p.m., after his truck was already spotted in the parking lot next to the tavern, state police reported witnesses as saying.
On June 11 at 6:13 p.m. he made his first call to police, after news reports of the found body.
“During the late hours of June 10, John Holdsworth left a birthday party in Southwest Harbor,” Austin wrote in his affidavit.
“John Holdsworth did not report the crash until the evening of June 11, 2023. On June 12, the autopsy of Ms. Robbins was completed the cause of death was blunt force instruments injuries.”
Robbins of Tremont grew up in Waldo County and attended Searsport High School, where she played basketball, according to her aunt, Belfast resident Amylin Billings.
Robbins held a few jobs over the years, working at one point for The Jackson Laboratory, and more recently as an in-home health aide.
Robbins was married but at the time of her death was separated and living alone with her daughters, who are 11 and 12 years old.
The maximum penalty for manslaughter in Maine is 30 years in prison and a fine.
Southwest Harbor explores paid public parking to manage ‘mayhem’ at Manset dock
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Is paid public parking coming to the Quietside?
The select board this week asked for quotes from a kiosk vendor for three potential paid parking lots at the town docks. The vendor, IPS Group, is the service provider for the private paid lot owned by the Drydock Cafe on Main Street and the town of Bar Harbor, which is expecting parking revenues of $4 million this year.
The primary motivation is to manage the “mayhem” principally at the town dock in Manset and to relieve the harbormaster of the responsibility of monitoring illegal parking.
Harbor Committee Chair Nicholas Madeira said the kiosks offer the opportunity to “assign parking, give people limitations, know who's there and just reel in some of the mayhem that happens at all of our town docks.”
A spokesman for the company recommended using the current system in Bar Harbor where users enter the vehicle’s plate number, and enforcement is enabled by a scanner which may be operated by someone driving by.
Bar Harbor kiosks accept cash, credit and debit cards, resident discount cards and tokens. Without any supporting data, select member Luke Damon told the company he wants a cards-only system.
Damon also triggered a rebuke from Madeira when he asked a series of questions on how the harbor Committee would manage such a system. “Do we have a plan of what's allowed, what permits would be exempt from the meter? Is everybody going to be on the meter?”
Madeira replied,
“This is not our plan.
“This is a select board that has talked about signage for more than two years. I mean, you guys beat signage into the ground - on exodus, how to get in and out of town, emergency roads, where the public restrooms are …
“The harbor committee has ideas for the town facility but signs are in this room right here.
“So whatever you guys want to do. This is a way to manage the process. Whatever you implement. We know the number of parking spaces available. We can put numbers on it. We can draw lines in the sand so to speak. But there are different codes that can be put into this machine. It's not a one size fits all. It's 24-hour, eight-hour or no pay for the people on Greening Island. It's very versatile.”
The harbor committee has openly criticized the select board the past several years for not understanding its mission and for its lack of support.
The select board Tuesday put an end to any notion by the harbor committee that it could move ahead and replace the harbormaster’s office without approval from the select board.
“Nope. Has to be approved by us,” select chair Carolyn Ball said when told of the committee’s discussion. (See below)
Quietside select boards support much-needed working waterfront improvements, vote to seek more info
The select boards of the island’s two largest working harbors voted to pursue three projects to enhance their waterfront infrastructure.
In Southwest Harbor, the board authorized the harbormaster and the harbor committee “to move forward” with plans for a new office for the harbormaster after committee member Anne Napier presented drawings she had drafted for a proposed building.
“The harbor committee has been talking about the need for the harbormaster to have a new office where the floor is not rotted out and the building is not 25- or 30-years-old, and is well heated and functional.
“We've made that recommendation a number of times, and there have been no action. So I took it upon myself to investigate …
“I worked as a general contractor and I know quality of materials and how to design buildings myself, so I put together a packet on Backyard Builders and present it to the committee and they gave me permission to move forward with whatever I research.
“I did a design and I did both the floor plan with the schematics for the electrical and the plumbing and also did elevations which means if you're looking at a building from a particular side what looks like and then I put together specifications for the building in several different sizes.”
Napier asked Backyard Builders for estimates for three different sizes. Town Manager confirmed there is money in the budget for the project.
Tremont revisits replacing wharf house, mulls new hoist, approves Seal Cove repairs
In Tremont last week, the select board authorized the town manager to have plans drafted to replace the town-owned wharf house with a potential harbormaster’s building.
A stray firework into the house requiring some repair may have serendipitously triggered a new conversation about the house, which has not been occupied for more than five years. The town owns the house and a nearby garage.
In 2015, the select board had a similar conversation about the future of the house which was rented at the time for $750 a month.
The Wharf House was struck by a stray firework through the front of it and lodged in the baseboard heater in the kitchen area. The person who accidentally shot the firework broke through the door and kicked another window in to put the fire out. They extinguished the fire and called the fire department. The individual who caused the incident has boarded up the window, cleaned up the glass, re-secured the door on the hinges.
Town Manager Jesse Dunbar wondered if there’s anything else the members wanted the individual to do.
That prompted a discussion about its future.
The code enforcement officer has said if it has not been a residential structure for five years, it cannot be resumed as a residential structure where it’s located. DEP has been asked to determine whether a harbormasters’ building is considered a water-dependent use which would give the town flexibility to relocate the current office on the deck of the town dock.
The board voted to proceed with what would be a triple-bank shot: investigate plans to replace the wharf house, and use it as a new harbormaster’s building. That would open up the deck for a fourth hoist sought by the harbor committee.
Seal Cove ramp
The select board also voted to authorize use of funds from the Seal Cove fund to repair slabs at the ramp at Seal Cove. The town crew is expected to do most of the work.
You need to remove his address immediately for the safety of his family
The address listed for John Holdsworth needs to be removed from this article immediately.