WILTON, Maine — A local man is accused of sexually abusing two Franklin County girls, who were younger than 12 at the time, within the last six years, police said.
Sgt. Richard Billian Jr. arrested Carl A. Seaward Jr., 81, of Wilton, on Tuesday on a felony charge of unlawful sexual contact and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful sexual touching, Wilton police Chief Heidi Gould said Wednesday.
The Wilton Police Department investigated the case after it received a referral from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Wilcox said.
State prosecutors added two more felony unlawful sexual contact charges during a court appearance Wednesday, according to court documents.
The incidents occurred in September 2006, the documents state.
Judge Nancy Carlson set bail for Seaward, a retired school guidance counselor, at $10,000 cash, the documents state. He remained at Franklin County jail in Farmington as of Wednesday afternoon.
Seaward retired from the Jay School Department in 2002 after serving more than 15 years as a counselor at the elementary and middle schools, according to Sun Journal archives.
Carlson ordered Seaward to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the victims and to have no contact with anyone younger than 16, documents state. Bail may be revisited once an attorney is appointed.
A status conference on the case is set for Aug. 24.
Seaward was recognized in March 2011 as a Korean War veteran and was presented military service medals by U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, during a ceremony in Wilton.
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If proven guilty, the service medals should be rescinded too, a poor excuse for a human being.
No, if he’s a war hero, then he is. Now, though, if he’s found “quilty” then we can put it to bed forever and call him a dirty old man under the covers.
If he retired in 2002, how/why did he have contact with children in 2006?
Could the time line be warped?
There is nothing in the story to suggest the offenses happened while he was a guidance counselor or that he had a teacher/student relationship with the victims.
Free health care for the 81 year old in prison.
From the original story in the Daily Bulldog last March “After serving in Korea, Seaward joined the U.S. Forest Service after graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in Forestry. In the early 1960s, he switched careers and taught math and science at Andover, Greenville and Old Town high and middle schools. He moved to Arizona and spent the next 15 years teaching and earned a master’s degree in counseling.
He returned to Maine and taught Adult Education at Mountain Valley and was a counselor at the Jay schools until his retirement in 2002. Currently he serves as a ballot clerk for Wilton and is the town’s representative on the Sandy River Recycling Committee. He is also a member of numerous charitable organizations.”
I do not know this man or his family, but in my most humble opinion, he deserves to be PRESUMED INNOCENT until and unless he is proven guilty of these charges. All too often people are tried and convicted by public opinion, and their lives and reputations forever damaged, when they are in fact innocent. Children sometimes lie, and DHHS certainly is not infallible in its actions.