Driver Accused of Trying to Run Down Maine Wire Reporter Outside Bangor Methadone Clinic

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A Maine Wire reporter was involved in a potentially dangerous confrontation with a driver Thursday morning while reporting outside a Bangor methadone clinic.

Reporter Joe Sokol was conducting reporting from public property near Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center, also known as Discovery House BR Inc., at 689 Odlin Road when a driver confronted him and attempted to interfere with his work.
Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson said the driver recognized Sokol as a reporter and confronted him in an apparent effort to interfere with his reporting.

“The bedlamite identified Sokol as a journalist and expressed a clear intent to stop him from conducting routine journalism from public property,” Robinson said in a statement.

Robinson alleged that the driver then attempted to strike Sokol with a vehicle, characterizing the incident as an attempted killing.

Sokol was able to move out of the vehicle’s path and was not injured.

Robinson said Sokol also recorded the vehicle’s license plate immediately after the encounter, allowing police to identify the driver.

“Sokol’s quick-thinking and training immediately allowed him to preserve the license plate,” Robinson said. “He is unharmed and safe.”

The Maine Wire identified the vehicle as a blue Jeep Compass bearing Maine registration 841-LZD.

Robinson further alleged that the driver may have been intoxicated and said the news organization would cooperate with police as they investigate both the driver and the circumstances preceding the encounter.

“We will cooperate fully as they investigate the driver of the Blue Jeep Compass Maine License Plate 841-LZD, as well as any nearby accessories to attempted murder who may have provided this individual with intoxicating substances before he immediately attempted vehicular homicide,” Robinson said.

Bangor police responded to the incident and are investigating, according to The Maine Wire.

“The Maine Wire would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the men and women of the Bangor Police Department who handled the situation with seriousness, compassion, and aplomb,” Robinson said.

Sokol had been reporting on Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center, an active medication-assisted-treatment facility that provides methadone treatment. The Maine Wire said the facility has received roughly $25 million in taxpayer funding.

The incident comes amid a series of confrontations involving Maine Wire reporters this year. In January, reporter Jon Fetherston was physically confronted while covering a Lewiston City Council meeting, and in July he was shoved, spat on and struck in the head with a skateboard while livestreaming an anti-ICE protest in Biddeford; a man was later charged with assault in connection with that incident.

The following day, a tire on Fetherston’s vehicle had been slashed after another anti-ICE demonstration in Scarborough, while The Maine Wire also reported that he had received multiple death threats and that protesters in Biddeford had chanted his home address.

Fetherston has subsequently had his tires slashed again.