AUGUSTA — A 19-year-old woman accused of stabbing the father of her child Wednesday remained behind bars today in lieu of $15,000 cash bail.

Constance Jean Marie Mason is accused of aggravated assault in the attack on William D. Foster Jr., 58, in the Washington Street apartment they share.

Mason had an initial court appearance today via video link in Augusta District Court, where a judge set bail and agreed it could be reviewed once a lawyer was appointed to represent Mason on the charge.

Judge Beth Dobson warned Mason that the charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines. Dobson set conditions of bail that ban Mason from having contact with Foster and from having weapons and imposed a curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Mason, her hair tied back, was wearing an orange jail uniform and did not say anything to the judge.

Mason’s mother, Mary Jo Mason, of Litchfield, was in the courtroom and watched the brief proceeding before heading over to the jail to try to speak to an attorney.

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“Could you please tell my daughter I love her?” she asked. Court personnel told her that Constance Mason would be told her mother was in the courtroom watching.

Mary Jo Mason said her daughter had been having some problems possibly caused by post-partum depression and stress, which might have led to the incident.

Outside the courthouse, Mary Jo Mason said that she had spoken to Foster on the telephone today morning and he told her he was sore but recovering. She said he was being treated at Maine Medical Center in Portland after being transferred from MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta.

She didn’t have any details of the stabbing.

“He just said he got stabbed,” she said.

According to police, Foster was stabbed in the back with a steak knife.

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According to court affidavit by Augusta Police Officer Carly B. Smith, a caller reported an argument at the Mason-Foster residence at 11:41 p.m. Wednesday and shortly afterward, a second call reported a stabbing.

Smith said Constance Mason let her in the apartment and Smith saw Foster “lying on a mattress on the floor to the left of the entry door covered in blood.”

Initially Mason told her another man stabbed Foster, but soon said she had stabbed Foster “twice with a kitchen knife because she was mad at him.”

The two have a 4 1/2-month old daughter who was placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com


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