Suspect charged in new incidents after posting bail raises alarm

AUBURN, Maine (AP) — Many Mainers are casting a critical eye on the state's justice system after a man accused of breaking the windows of 75 vehicles at an Auburn dealership posted a $150 bond and allegedly bailed three days later to commit a second crime.

Auburn police said 25-year-old Skyler Henson was arrested on September 21 after he allegedly damaged several cars at the Rowe Auburn Auto Dealership.

On Sept. 24, just days after his arrest and release, Auburn police said Henson allegedly caused a multi-vehicle accident at the intersection of Main and Canal Streets and fled the scene.

After leaving the scene, Henson crashed into other vehicles and was later arrested, according to police.

The dealership's general manager, Michael Jeffers, said he received a call from Portland police just after 4 a.m. Saturday.

“Well, your phone rings at four in the morning and it's never good, is it?” Jeffers said.

Jeffers said police told him the cars in the parking lot were allegedly damaged by Henson. Jeffers said his dealership was the victim of “unnecessary destruction.”

“He came down right here and started smashing the front of these cars,” Jeffers said. “And he just went through it line by line. He did it all in about 18 minutes.”

Jeffers explained that surveillance video showed a man carrying a backpack full of bricks and heavy weights smashing the windows of about 75 cars in the parking lot, causing what he said was over $90,000 in damage caused.

Although court documents show the cost of damages to be between $80,000 and $90,000, Jeffers said the remaining damages are closer to $100,000. He explained that the insurance company is still billing the costs.

Jeffers added that police told him that Henson called the police himself and allegedly reported his own crimes. Jeffers also said surveillance video shows Henson waving at the camera.

District Attorney Neil McLean, who covers Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, said Henson was arrested and arraigned.

McLean said a bail commissioner set Henson's bail at $5,000, but he explained that the bail amounts set by bail commissioners are not final and are likely to change.

According to McLean, the affidavit prosecutors received during Henson's first arrest only contained information that he had damaged a vehicle at the dealership.

McLean explained that often multiple officers respond to a crime scene, but most of the time only one officer transports the suspect to jail.

He added that the officer who takes a suspect to jail is usually the officer who fills out the affidavit and other necessary paperwork. One officer may not have all the information known to other officers responding to an accident scene.

McLean said district attorneys and prosecutors can only file charges based on information they can support with evidence.

“We cannot bring charges against a citizen unless we know we can prove them or we strongly believe we can prove them,” McLean said.

Critics were curious as to why Henson's bail was reduced and why he was able to post bail only to reoffend. Some said this incident reminded them of the Leein Hinkley case, which was unrelated to Henson's alleged crimes.

Police reports indicate that Hinkley, who was released from prison in 2023 after serving a sentence for a 2012 conviction for stabbing his girlfriend and another person, was arrested in May after he was accused of another crime of domestic violence.

Despite prosecutors' pleas to keep Hinkley behind bars, arguing that he should not be entitled to bail because he had violated the terms of his probation, Hinkley was released.

Three days after Hinkley's release, he armed himself with a gun and went to his ex-girlfriend's home in Auburn. There he started an argument with a man in the house. Police said Hinkley led them on a chase and shot at them before he was shot by officers. The man with whom Hinkley had apparently started an argument was later found dead in the house after it burned to the ground.

McLean said he viewed the Hinkley case as a tragic incident in which a violent man, who was on parole, fell through the cracks of the justice system and took innocent lives.

“Leein Hinkley was a failure,” McLean said. “It was more of a question of evidence. What do we actually have that we can prove at the time of filing the lawsuit?”

For McLean, Hinkley and Henson, the cases are simply not comparable. Henson was not on probation at the time he allegedly committed the first offense, destroying cars at the dealership.

McLean said that based on the information in the police affidavit, prosecutors only had enough evidence to file a misdemeanor charge, which explains why bail could be reduced to $150. He said if the affidavit had included information about all of the dealer's damages, prosecutors could have filed criminal charges, which would have resulted in a higher bond.

Police officers were doing their jobs properly and officers completing a suspect's paperwork can only report what they know based on the information they have at the time, McLean explained.

“They're processing what they've seen, even though their colleagues are out gathering a lot of additional information,” McLean said.

People's trust in the justice system has diminished over the years, and he has never seen trust in law enforcement and the justice system be lower, McLean said. He acknowledged that the system has some flaws, largely because prosecutors and law enforcement officers do not have all the necessary resources.

McLean said he is committed to improving relations with the public, but he and other prosecutors also have the responsibility and burden of making difficult decisions to hold people accountable to the law while refraining from violating their law to abuse their discretion and power.

“We have to make difficult decisions based on the evidence we have,” McLean said.

He said Henson had a “competent, experienced professional attorney.”

“That lawyer would make sure we didn’t have probable cause,” McLean said. “They would argue against it and that could have resulted in the case being dismissed and no bail being released at all. Ethically, we cannot bring charges that we do not have probable cause to support.”

McLean added that he takes every opportunity to explain the complexities of the criminal justice system in hopes of restoring people's trust in those who work to hold people accountable to the law.

“The reason I like the opportunity to talk to the public about this whenever I can is because having that conversation allows them to understand that we are actually doing everything we can,” McLean said. “But if they don’t know that, if that’s not explained to them, we just become one of the other beings that abandons them.”

McLean said he is certain the case will change his fortunes and the investigation into Henson's alleged crimes is ongoing.

Jeffers said the dealership will hire night security after Saturday's incident.

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