BANGOR, Maine — The male victim of a brutal sexual assault and burning that happened while he was passed out drunk one month ago is still hospitalized.
“[He] remains in critical condition,” an Eastern Maine Medical Center spokeswoman said Monday.
The 43-year-old victim told police he got drunk at a party on Nov. 28 and woke up the next day with burns on his back, an injury to his abdomen, a broken ankle and internal injuries, including a perforated bowel, and was not sure how they happened.
During the investigation, police interviewed Laura M. Smith, 27, who formerly lived at 24 First St. where the party took place. Smith told police that she sexually assaulted the man “as a joke” while he was passed out and then burned him with microwave-heated water.
She was charged in early December with elevated aggravated assault and gross sexual assault, and Judge Ann Murray set her bail at $50,000.
Smith remained in Penobscot County Jail on Monday night.
The male victim called for help at 8:40 a.m. Nov. 29 and was taken to EMMC. He later had emergency surgery to repair his torn bowel, which had “caused his body to become infected,” according to the police affidavit written by Bangor police Detective Brent Beaulieu.
The man has been in critical condition at the hospital since then.
While he is identified in the report, the Bangor Daily News does not typically disclose the names of crime victims.
An eyewitness who attended the First Street drinking party called police the next day saying he was “still disturbed by what he witnessed,” the affidavit states. He told police that the victim was naked and lying on the floor, almost unconscious, when he arrived and that he watched as Smith sodomized the man with a wooden dowel.
“Laura laughed about it,” the witness reported to police.
The eyewitness also told police he saw Smith repeatedly heat up water in the microwave and “then poured the water on [the victim’s] back,” the court document states.
Smith, who turned herself in to police on Dec. 8, said she poured the microwave-heated water on the victim and sexually assaulted him.
“She said that she did this as a joke,” the affidavit states.
The victim’s ankle was broken when Smith and the man who hosted the party attempted to drag him up to his apartment and “he fell down the stairs,” she stated in the affidavit.
If convicted of the felony elevated aggravated assault charge, Smith would face up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. The gross sexual assault charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years and a fine of $20,000.
When police searched Smith’s apartment, they found a note apparently written by her that stated, “I did sumthing to sum one as a joke and it got out of hand,” court documents state. “What I did could end me up in jail.”