AUGUSTA — A man charged with robbing two city pharmacies for drugs remains in jail after bail was set Monday at $100,000 worth of property or $50,000 cash.

Carmine A. Fazzi Jr., 19, of Augusta, made an initial court appearance Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court by video from the next-door jail, where he has been held since Friday.

He was recently extradited to Maine from New York to face the robbery charges. However, an affidavit supporting the warrant for Fazzi’s arrest remains under seal by a judge.

Fazzi is accused of robbing the CVS pharmacy on Stone Street on Feb. 13 and of robbing Rite Aid pharmacy on North Belfast Avenue on Feb. 20.

In both instances, he told the pharmacy clerks that he had a handgun, according to Assistant District Attorney Steve Parker, who revealed the detail in a motion to seal the arrest warrant affidavit.

“Public disclosure of the names of informants and witnesses at this time may compromise the integrity of the judicial process,” Parker wrote.

On Monday, Justice Michaela Murphy allowed that document to remain under seal for at least 24 hours more at the request of Assistant District Attorney Brad Grant.

Grant told her at Fazzi’s hearing that a second defendant, Daniel Rines, 18, of Pittston, had been charged in connection with the Rite Aid robbery and that an arrest warrant is out for a teenaged boy who is also believed to be involved. Grant said Rines, who is free on bail, has been cooperative.

Augusta police have said that Rines denied entering the store and admitted being the driver at the Rite Aid robbery.

In both robberies, two people, identified as males in their teens or early 20s demanded medication from pharmacy clerks, police said.

Grant said Fazzi got 415 oxycodone pills from Rite Aid and an undisclosed amount of 5-milligram oxycodone pills from CVS.

In seeking a high bail, Grant noted that Fazzi has a juvenile criminal record, but he did not specify the offenses.

“Most significant, he’s a flight risk and had to be extradited from New York,” Grant said.

Fazzi was arrested March 5 in Greenburgh, N.Y., and charged, along with two other men, of assaulting a truck driver in a dispute over a towed vehicle.

Grant said Fazzi was convicted of the assault charge, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to time served because authorities knew Fazzi was wanted on the robbery charges in Maine.

Lisa Whittier, the attorney who represented Fazzi at his initial hearing, said she would not argue for a lower bail but asked the judge to allow it to be reviewed once Fazzi gets an attorney.

Conditions of bail ban Fazzi from being in the pharmacies and from being in contact with the clerks and with co-defendants.

Murphy told Fazzi his next court date is July 10.

Meantime, a civil lawsuit remains pending against Fazzi. In it, the state accuses Fazzi of violating the civil rights of a Cony High School employee in September 2009 by making derogatory remarks about the him and threatening to harm him.

Fazzi remains under a court order preventing him from threatening and harassing the employee and from being on property owned by him or his family. Fazzi failed to appear at a hearing on that matter in January 2011.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

 

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