BANGOR, Maine — A former Glenburn selectman and co-owner of a home child care business has been charged with molesting a 10-year-old girl who was enrolled at the day care center 4½ years ago.
Ronald Earl Tewhey, 49, was summoned last week for unlawful sexual contact, Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, said Wednesday.
Tewhey was held briefly on Feb. 24 at the Penobscot County Jail before being released on bail. He went to the jail to discuss the allegations with a Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office detective who was investigating the case, Roberts said. Information about the amount of bail was not available Wednesday.
Bail conditions include no contact with the alleged victim or minors, according to Roberts. That prevents Tewhey from living at his Norway Road home, where the day care business is located.
Tewhey’s living arrangements could not be determined Wednesday.
An article posted on the Glenburn school Web site on Feb. 4 indicated that Tewhey had worked on a project with fourth-grade students as a volunteer. His bail conditions would prohibit him from continuing that activity.
Roberts, who did not release more details about the case, said he still was evaluating reports and had not determined whether more charges would be filed.
“He has been very cooperative with the process,” Roberts said of Tewhey. “As far as we are able to determine, he is not a risk to others. We are as satisfied as we can be that he doesn’t pose a risk to the community.”
Tewhey is scheduled to make his first appearance on May 1 in Penobscot County Superior Court.
If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.
Tewhey served as a Glenburn selectman from June 2005 to June 2008 but did not run for re-election. He also was chairman of the town’s School Regionalization Planning Committee until October 2007, when he quit after a dispute with the school committee.
Tewhey and his wife, Tammy Tewhey, have run Tammy’s Loving Day Care in Glenburn for 15 years. They are the first family-run day care in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties to win national accreditation from the National Association of Family Child Care, according to an article published last year in the Bangor Daily News.
Dawn Gagnon of the BDN staff contributed to this report.