Four homeless people, one of whom a convicted sex offender, were kicked out of the Glickman Library within two hours on Friday morning, Oct. 30.
According to Lisa Beecher, chief of USM Police, the first altercation occurred at 9:43 a.m. with Dennis M. Sheehan, 54, a transient currently living in Portland.
?? ?”He had created some problems in the library the day before,” she said. “When he came back on this particular day, personnel from the Glickman library called us because there had been a problem the day before and they were concerned about his behavior.”
Lt. Sullivan Rizzo and Officer Eric Libby of the USM Police responded to the call. Sheehan gave police his ID.
They checked his name, and discovered he was on the sex offender registry in Massachusetts. “Anybody who is a sex offender who needs to register in Portland needs to do that through Portland PD,” Beecher said. “They found out through talking with a detective at Portland PD that he had not registered.”
?? ?Sheehan “put up a fight” and one officer was injured when police tried to arrest him, Beecher said. She would not say which officer was injured, or how they were hurt.
Sheehan was arrested for refusing to submit to arrest or detention and failure to register as a sex offender.
??? According to Beecher, Sheehan plead guilty at his arraignment. He received seven days in jail for his failure to register and two days for resisting arrest.
According to the Cumberland County Jail, Sheehan was released on Nov. 6.
One hour later, another homeless man — who police who identify only as a 26-year-old man, and a “companion” of Sheehan — was served criminal trespass papers after library staff complained to police he was “going in and out of stairways acting suspiciously.”
An hour after that, police responded to library staff reports of two people sleeping in chairs on the fifth floor of the library.
“They were spread out and snoring,” said Beecher.
They were served criminal trespass papers as well. Police would not release their names.
Although police have been called in the past to deal with transients in the library, Beecher said they deal with complaints on a case-by-case basis; they don’t have any plans to bar access to the library.
Head Libarian David Nutty said since the library is partially funded by state tax money, the building is open to the general public.
By all accounts, Friday, Oct. 30 was not a typical day.
“Most of our interactions of this sort are with homeless people,” Beecher said.
“To have that many in such a short period of time? Yes it is [unusual].”