Houlton Man Arrested in Assault and Robbery of Hodgdon Man
The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a Houlton man on numerous charges in connection with a violent assault and robbery last month in Hodgdon.
Forty-six-year-old Brady Bridges is accused of entering a man’s home in Hodgdon in mid-February, and threatening the victim with a claw hammer, according to Sheriff Darrell Crandall.
The homeowner convinced Bridges to go outside with him because his daughter was also home at the time. Once outside, Bridges assaulted the victim repeatedly with his fist, Crandall said.
Bridges informed the victim that his family would not be harmed if the man gave him $3,000. Bridges accompanied the man to a bank in Houlton and watched as he withdrew the cash. The victim then gave the money to Bridges.
The victim did not immediately report the crime to the Sheriff’s Office for fear of violent repercussions. according to Sheriff Crandall.
Following a thorough investigation of the allegations, Bridges was lured to a meeting Wednesday morning, near the bowling alley on U.S. Route 1 in Hodgdon, Crandall said. The suspect was taken into custody by plain clothes Deputies. He offered no resistance.
Bridges is charged with robbery, burglary, criminal threatening with a weapon, assault and theft by extortion. He remains at the Aroostook County Jail, where bail has been set at $10,000 cash.
Sheriff Crandall said these crimes were not random and the victim and Bridges know each other. If convicted of the most serious offense of robbery, Bridges faces up to thirty years in prison.
Crandall stated that Bridges has a lengthy criminal history in Maine, dating back to 1990, with multiple convictions for theft, as well as convictions for drug trafficking, criminal threatening, tampering with a witness and domestic violence assault.
Bridges is also awaiting sentencing for manufacturing methamphetamine in New Jersey.