PARIS — A Rumford businessman pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Tuesday in Oxford County Superior Court for fighting with a former police officer at Judy’s Variety on Route 2 in Rumford last October.
Ronald J. Theriault, 52, pleaded to a Class E charge of disorderly conduct. An assault charge was dismissed, and he was sentenced to pay a $750 fine for the incident. Theriault got in a fight with Robert N. Gilbert, who was also charged with assault and disorderly conduct.
The District Attorney’s office dropped the charges against Gilbert, issuing a “no complaint” on Nov. 6, 2012, according to a deputy clerk at Rumford District Court.
Theriault, a financial broker, owns Summit Insurance and Financial in Rumford and is a former Rumford Finance Committee member who unsuccessfully ran for selectman in 2007.
The incident occurred at about 9 a.m. Oct. 4 when Sgt. Douglas Maifeld of the Rumford Police Department received a complaint from the owner of Judy’s Variety about a fight in the parking lot. Both Theriault and Gilbert were gone before the sergeant arrived.
Maifeld told the Sun Journal last year that Gilbert confronted Theriault for saying what Gilbert felt were inappropriate things about women in the restaurant.
Maifeld said he reviewed security footage of the incident. The video showed Theriault holding up a cup of hot coffee at about shoulder height and Gilbert slapping it from his hand, spilling the coffee all over Theriault. “Ron, in turn, started punching (Gilbert),” Maifeld told the Sun Journal. “On the video, you can see after the first punch was thrown that Gilbert was trying to walk away.”
Maifeld said witnesses told him Theriault “ended up pulling the shirt up over the guy’s head and started hitting him and kicking him while he was down, until somebody separated them.”
Theriault’s case was originally to be held in Rumford District Court but in October, Attorney Jarrod S. Crockett requested a jury trial on behalf of Theriault, which had the case transferred to Oxford County Superior Court.
Staff Writer Terry Karkos contributed to this story.
Comments are no longer available on this story