Holden Man Out On Bail Arrested Again, Police Say

It seems to be a pattern, or at least that's what the Holden Police Department is pointing out in their latest post: Someone is arrested, taken to jail, eventually convicted of a crime, and then released on post-conviction bail or with specific bail conditions, only to show up again on the radar of local law enforcement and eventually end up back in jail.

According to the State of Maine, folks who are released on post-conviction bail are supposed to abide by certain rules:

"Every order for post-conviction release of a defendant must include a waiver of extradition by the defendant as well as a condition of bail that the defendant refrain from new criminal conduct and not violate any pending protection from abuse order."

Authorities in Holden have revealed several examples over the last few months, including one that happened just this week.

Posting on their social media page, they explained that 53-year-old Holden man, David MacKenzie, was recently arrested for a second time while out on post-conviction bail, in the last 3 months.

"You may recall that the last time we arrested David MacKenzie, he was out on post-conviction bail for aggravated assault, OUI, and leaving the scene of a crash after he struck down an 86-year-old man in Brewer and violated the terms of his post-conviction bail. "

Authorities say that MacKenzie was put under house arrest at this point. He was told not to have contact with one of the witnesses in the case. The Holden PD received a tip that MacKenzie was violating these directives as well. When they looked into the matter, they said MacKenzie was indeed doing exactly what he was told not to.

"On Saturday night, 03/22/2025, Lt. Whitehouse observed David Mackenzie and the witness pull into David MacKenzie's residence at around 9:30 pm. Lt. Whitehouse attempted several times with his public address system and by knocking on the door to get David MacKenzie out of the residence, but he refused to do so."

Holden Police say that they eventually got a warrant, and with the help of Brewer PD, the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office, and members of the Maine State Police, they were able to arrest MacKenzie without any issues and find the witness, who had been hiding inside.

MacKenzie was arrested and sent to the Penobscot County Jail for a third time.

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Nationally, Maine isn't necessarily the highest when it comes to repeat offenders, but it's not the lowest either. One online source has Maine's recidivism rate at 26.3% for the last few years.

"Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to repeat or re-offend a crime after already receiving punishment or serving their sentence. The term is often used in conjunction with substance abuse as a synonym for “relapse” but is specifically used for criminal behavior. The United States has some of the highest recidivism rates in the world. "

As the article goes on to say, it's often overcrowding of jails and prisons that leads to the release of some of these repeat offenders.