It’s been one month since a Pittston man was stabbed to death after what police described as a confrontation with a tenant of his boarding home, and no charges have been filed in the case.
Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland said Tuesday that there have been no new developments in the investigation into the fatal stabbing of 51-year-old Dale Clifford, who ran the boarding home out of the historic mansion on Route 194 in the East Pittston village.
McCausland said police still are compiling all interviews, the medical examiner’s report and evidence gathered from the home and will review the case with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, but there’s no timetable for when the final review will take place. McCausland wouldn’t comment on what police believe led to the confrontation or the stabbing, which was reported at 6:19 p.m. Aug. 15, and he wouldn’t identify the tenant.
But Lucinda Albano, who was renting a room in the home at the time, told the Kennebec Journal the day after the incident that her boyfriend stabbed Clifford in self-defense after Clifford attacked him.
Albano, who wouldn’t identify her boyfriend, said Clifford had pushed his way into the bathroom the couple was in and cornered and choked her boyfriend. She said her boyfriend then stabbed Clifford with a pocket knife, pushed him out of the way and ran out of the building to call 911.
Albano said Clifford had threatened them earlier that day, leaving the couple scared for their well-being, and illegally tried to evict the couple the day before the encounter. The threatening behavior led her to call police multiple times that day, Albano said, but she said a state trooper who went to the home once that day didn’t listen to her concerns that Clifford was dangerous.
The log on Albano’s cellphone the day after the stabbing showed that she called emergency dispatchers at the state’s regional communications center in Augusta nine times on Aug. 15.
The Kennebec Journal made a public records request on Aug. 17 under Maine’s public access laws for transcripts of those 911 calls but has yet to receive the records. The Maine Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that the Maine attorney general’s office still is reviewing the call transcripts in connection with the newspaper’s records request.
Paul Koenig — 621-5663
Twitter: @pdkoenig
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