Man who raped sleeping friend gets 6 years in prison

PARIS, Maine — A Bryant Pond man convicted last week of raping a woman has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Spencer T. Glover, 30, w as found guilty of gross sexual assault, Class B, on July 17. He was sentenced to 10 years, with all but six years suspended, plus three years of probation. His probation will bar him from contact with the victim, and from drugs and alcohol. He must attend sex offender counseling, and will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

In January 2011, he took advantage of a woman who had been drinking with other friends at his former home in Bethel, according to testimony. Rather than letting her drive home drunk, he and a friend took her to an upstairs bedroom.

Later, Glover entered the room and had sex with the woman while she was sleeping. She testified that she woke up to the assault.

At his sentencing on Friday in Oxford County Superior Court, the woman’s mother read a statement, asking for the maximum sentence of 10 years. “Evil has touched our lives,” she told the court.

She recalled the emotional moment when her daughter told her she’d been raped. “I wanted to scoop her up in my arms like when she was a toddler and take away her pain,” she said, crying.

Glover told friends he’d been falsely accused, and some sided with him, she said. “She should not have had to feel stigmatized or embarrassed one bit. She did nothing wrong.”

The woman Glover assaulted also spoke. She said she’d hoped Glover would take a plea deal rather than make her testify about the incident in court. Instead, she said, “he made me sit through a trial with a judge and a jury and my family and made me recount what happened.”

Glover’s mother apologized to the victim and her family and recounted incidents of Glover growing up. She said her son had grown more wild over the years. “You were a really nice person when you were clean and sober,” she told him.

Glover said he was a different person 18 months ago when he committed the crime. He said he had been drinking too much and was “severely addicted to marijuana.”

“I no longer drink. I’m no longer addicted to marijuana,” Glover said.

His attorney, Ron Hoffman, asked for a shorter sentence, and noted that Glover had been with the same employer for nine years before his arrest for sexual assault last year. He called Glover “an excellent candidate for probation.”

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor urged Justice Robert Clifford to impose “a sentence that makes it clear the wrongfulness of his conduct and the innocence of his victim.” O’Connor said Glover’s behavior in a conversation recorded after the assault and at the trial showed he had “no remorse.”

Clifford noted that during the trial, Glover changed his story from denying any sexual contact with the victim to accusing her of initiating sex with him, which Clifford called “a huge aggravating factor” affecting the length of his sentence.

Glover asked for a stay of execution to get his affairs in order. It was denied. He is set to be released in 2018.