Authorities in Somerset County say they will not pursue charges against Clifford “CJ” Warren, who attacked Jason Servil during Servil’s sentencing April 12 in Skowhegan, above. Servil was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of Warren’s sister, 20-year-old Alice Abbott of Skowhegan. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel file

SKOWHEGAN — The brother of a murder victim who tried to attack his sister’s killer in a Skowhegan courtroom will not be prosecuted, District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said.

Clifford Warren of Winterport, who was 34 at the time of the incident, had been issued a summons to appear in court on a charge of assault, according to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

But after reviewing the case, Maloney’s office declined to prosecute him on that charge.

“I declined Clifford Warren’s case as he was experiencing an extreme emotional response and there was no injury to the ‘victim’ who murdered his sister,” Maloney told the Morning Sentinel.

Jeremy Pratt, the defense attorney who represented Jason Servil, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he was “dumbfounded” by Maloney’s decision to decline prosecuting the charge and found it “extraordinarily shameful.”

“I think it’s shameful and disappointing,” said Pratt, of the Camden law firm Pratt & Simmons. “I’m not really sure what more to say than that. It’s a courtroom proceeding. The defendant was attacked. It’s unacceptable. And there should be consequences for that sort of behavior. Otherwise, it will continue to happen.”

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Maloney had said previously that her office would consider all circumstances of the incident, including that Warren was the family member of a murder victim and that the scuffle occurred at the end of an emotional sentencing hearing.

The April 12 incident happened at the end of a nearly two-hour hearing in Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.

Justice Robert Mullen, the chief justice of Maine’s Superior Court, sentenced Servil to 45 years in prison for the murder of Alice Abbott, Warren’s sister. Warren, who at one point during the sentencing hearing offered Servil’s mother a tissue, spoke in court about the void in his life created by his sister’s murder.

As Servil’s defense attorneys and the assistant attorney general representing the state approached the bench for a sidebar conversation after the sentence was handed down, Warren surged from his seat in the gallery over the railing — known as the bar — and across about 20 feet to attack Servil. Warren was stopped by a county corrections officer, who deployed a stun gun, and was later escorted away in handcuffs. Some family members of Abbott also shouted at Servil as judicial marshals from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office cleared them from the courtroom.

Immediately following the incident, Pratt, Servil’s defense attorney, criticized security protocols in the courtroom. The family was sitting in the front row, with little physical separation between them and Servil, and there was not enough security personnel, Pratt said then.

Pratt said Wednesday that he was not aware of any discussions about improving courtroom security in Skowhegan. Pratt, who is also the president of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, declined to comment on that organization’s discussions or actions stemming from the incident at Servil’s sentencing.

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Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said earlier this year that his office is always reviewing its security protocols. The sheriff’s office is one of two in the state that provides court security, rather than state judicial marshals, according to a spokesperson for the Maine Judicial Branch.

At a meeting July 24, the county’s Board of Commissioners briefly discussed court security, though their conversation largely focused on the Probate Court. The county also recently filled an open full-time judicial marshal position.

Meanwhile, a planned replacement for the Superior Courthouse — a 30,000-square-foot addition to Skowhegan District Court to the tune of $45 million — promises several security upgrades.

Servil, 21, previously of Boston, Massachusetts, was incarcerated as of Wednesday at the Maine State Prison in Warren, according to Department of Corrections records.

On July 16, 2022, Servil was arrested after Skowhegan police responded to a report of an assault at 912 Canaan Road. When they arrived, they found Abbott’s body, an injured man from Madison who reported the attack, and another person.

Following an investigation, Servil was arrested later that day, and Abbott’s death was ruled a homicide the next day.

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Abbott was found with 99 stab wounds, prosecutors said.

Servil and Abbott had a brief relationship and Abbott told him she wanted to end it before the killing occurred, prosecutors said.

When Servil spoke with police, he admitted to Abbott’s murder and the assault of Nick Rice, who was at home with Abbott at the time, prosecutors said. For the aggravated assault, Mullen sentenced Servil to 10 years in prison concurrent with the murder sentence. Servil initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty in January, according to court records.

In impact statements at Servil’s sentencing, several of Abbott’s family members asked Mullen to impose a more severe sentence than the 45 years recommended by prosecutors in the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Murder carries a sentence of 25 years to life under state statute.

 

Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify Jeremy Pratt’s title at the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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