ROCKLAND, Maine — Possible motivations explaining why Charles Reed Black may have pushed his wife off a Camden cliff were released in a new police report.
Charles Black, 68, of Camden, was charged with aggravated assault Class B after police allege he smashed a rock over his wife’s head before dragging her to the edge of Maiden Cliff and shoving her off on April 7.
In interviews with police, Lisa Black, 52, of Camden, accused her husband of having an online affair with his former girlfriend. Further, Lisa Black had come into an inheritance of $4 million after her father’s death.
The couple had been having marital issues for a while, according to Lisa Black’s interview with police.
On April 7, the couple was having lunch on top of Maiden Cliff on Mount Megunticook when Lisa Black stood up. That’s when “she was struck on the back of the head three times. Lisa was knocked to the ground and her husband dragged her to the edge of the cliff and threw her over,” according to a police report filed in Knox County Superior Court.
Lisa Black fell a short distance, got up and started running down the mountain. She was afraid he was chasing her, trying to kill her, Maine State Police Detective Dean Jackson wrote. As she ran down the mountain, Charles Black fell past her and appeared injured.
Lisa Black made it to the bottom of the mountain to a nearby road by 3:20 p.m. April 7, when a passerby called police. Lisa Black was taken by LifeFlight to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Several police agencies then searched for Charles Black for 3.5 hours before bringing him to the Bangor hospital, too. Both people were seriously injured.
Charles Black was released from the hospital Friday and was promptly arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
The April 7 event on Mount Megunticook was the latest in a series, according to the woman.
Lisa Black felt “he has been trying to kill her,” stated the police report. “A couple of weeks ago Charles had climbed a ladder to the attic. Lisa was standing at the bottom of the ladder when Charles fell down on top of her. Charles told her that he passed out.”
Additionally, the couple had climbed Mount Battie — which, like Mount Megunticook, is in Camden Hills State Park — and Lisa Black told police Charles came up behind her and hit her when she was close to the edge of that mountain. He hit her hard enough for her to fall to the ground. Charles Black told his wife he had passed out in that instance too.
Of the two people on Mount Megunticook when the incident occurred, only one remembers the events. Charles Black said little to police before they brought him to jail.
Charles Black remembers driving to the mountain with his wife from their Camden home. He remembers eating a Subway sandwich and picking up rocks during the hike for his rock collection and stuffing them in his backpack, which police later found on the mountain. Then he remembers falling down the mountain.
“He could not remember hitting Lisa or throwing her off the side of the mountain. He stated if this happened, he could not remember it and he did not know why he would do this,” stated the police report.
Aggravated assault is a Class B crime punishable by up to 10 years incarceration and a $20,000 fine.
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