AUBURN, Maine — Many Mainers are looking at the state's judicial system with a critical eye after a man who was accused of smashing the windows of 75 vehicles at an Auburn dealership was able to post a $150 bail and allegedly commit a second crime three days later.
The Auburn Police Department said 25-year-old Skyler Henson was arrested on Sept. 21 after he allegedly damaged several cars at the Rowe Auburn 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 Street and Canal Street and fled the scene.
After leaving the scene, police said Henson crashed into more vehicles, and he was later arrested.
The dealership's general manager Michael Jeffers said he received a call from Portland police a little after 4 a.m. Saturday.
"Well, your phone rings at four in the morning and it's never good. Right?" Jeffers said.
Jeffers said police told him that cars on the lot were allegedly damaged by Henson. Jeffers explained that his dealership was a victim of "needless destruction."
"He came down right here and started smashing these cars in the front," Jeffers said. "And he just went down line by line. He did it all in about 18 minutes."
Jeffers explained surveillance video showed a man who was carrying a backpack full of bricks and heavy weights smashing the windows of some 75 cars on the lot, causing what he believes to be more than $90,000 in damage.
Although court documents show that the cost of damage is between $80,000 and $90,000, Jeffers said the damage left behind is closer to $100,000. He explained that the insurance company is still tallying the cost.
Jeffers added that police told him Henson called the police himself, allegedly reporting his own crimes. Jeffers also said the surveillance video shows Henson waving at the camera.
District Attorney Neil McLean, who covers Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties, said Henson was arrested and booked.
McLean said a bail commissioner set Henson's bail at $5,000, but he explained that bail amounts set by bail commissioners are not final, and likely to change.
According to McLean, the affidavit that district attorneys received from Henson's first arrest only included information about him damaging one vehicle at the dealership.
McLean explained that often, multiple police officers respond to a scene, but most times only one officer transports the suspect to jail.
He added that the officer who takes a suspect to jail is usually the officer who completes the affidavit and other necessary paperwork. One officer may not have all of the information that other officers who respond to a scene are privy to.
McLean said district attorneys and prosecutors can only bring forth charges on information they can support with evidence.
"We can't bring charges against a citizen unless we know we can prove them, or we feel very strongly that we can prove them," McLean said.
Critics have been curious about why Henson's bail was lowered and why he was able to post bail to then repeat offend. Some have said this incident reminds them of the Leein Hinkley case, which is non-related to Henson's alleged offenses.
Police reports detailed that Hinkley, who was released from prison in 2023 after serving a sentence for a 2012 conviction on charges related to stabbing his girlfriend and another person, was arrested in May after being accused of another domestic violence crime.
Despite prosecutors' pleas to hold Hinkley behind bars, arguing that he should not have the right to bail because he violated his probation, Hinkley was released.
Three days after Hinkley was released, he armed himself with a gun and went to his ex-girlfriend's home in Auburn. There, he started a fight with a man inside the home. Police said Hinkley led them on a chase, shooting at them before he was shot and killed by officers. The man Hinkley apparently started a fight with was later found dead inside the home after it had burned to the ground.
McLean said he sees the Hinkley case as a tragic incident where a violent man who was on probation fell through the cracks of the judicial system and took innocent lives.
"Leein Hinkley was a failure," McLean said. "This was more of an evidentiary issue. What do we actually have that we can prove at the time that we're bringing a complaint?"
For McLean, Hinkley and Henson's cases are simply non-comparable. Henson was not on probation at the time that he allegedly committed the first offense, destroying cars at the dealership.
McLean said with the information provided in the affidavit from police, prosecutors only had enough evidence to bring forth a misdemeanor charge, which explains why the bail was able to be reduced to $150. He said if information about all of the damages from the dealership was included in the affidavit, prosecutors could have brought forth a felony charge, which would have inflicted a higher bail.
Police officers did their jobs properly, and the officers who complete a suspect's paperwork can only report what they know from the information that they have at the time, McLean explained.
"They're working off what they saw even though their colleagues are out collecting much additional information," McLean said.
People's faith in the judicial system has waned over the years, and he has never seen trust in law enforcement and the judicial system be lower, McLean said. He acknowledged that there are some faults in the system, most of them caused by prosecutors and law enforcement officials not having all the resources that they need.
McLean stated he is committed to mending relationships with the public, but he and other prosecutors also have the responsibility and the burden of making tough decisions to hold people accountable to the law while simultaneously refraining from abusing their discretion and power.
"We have to make tough decisions based on the evidence that we have," McLean said.
He explained Henson has a "competent, experienced professional attorney."
"That attorney would see that we didn't have probable cause," McLean said. "They would argue it, and the result of that could have been a dismissal of the complaint and no bail at all. We ethically can't bring a charge that we don't have probable cause to support."
McLean added that he takes any opportunity he has to explain the complexities of the criminal justice system, hoping to restore people's trust in those who work to hold people accountable to the law.
"The reason I like to have the opportunity to speak to the public when I can about this is because when we have the conversation, they can understand that we actually are doing everything that we can in our power to do," McLean said. "But if they don't know that, if that's not explained to them then, we just become one of the other entities that's letting them down."
McLean said he's sure the case will change its posture, and the investigation into Henson's alleged crimes is still ongoing.
Jeffers said the dealership will be hiring overnight security following Saturday's incident.