BANGOR, Maine — A Brewer man was sentenced Tuesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to six years in prison with all but 2½ years suspended for his role in a 2011 crash that left a teenager paralyzed.
Gordon Cameron, 27, also was sentenced to three years of probation.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson imposed the sentence two months after rejecting a plea agreement that called for Cameron to spend two years behind bars.
“I have strongly considered the family’s feelings and realize this is something of a modest adjustment,” Anderson said in imposing the sentence.
Cameron, who began serving his sentence Tuesday, pleaded guilty on June 4 at the Penobscot Judicial Center to aggravated assault and criminal operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants in connection with the March 30, 2011, crash in Brewer.
On Tuesday, Anderson also sentenced Cameron to the mandatory minimum sentence on the felony drunken driving charge of six months, ordered him to pay the mandatory $2,100 fine and suspended his driver’s license for six years.
“We think that’s fair given the overall circumstances and recognizes what the victim’s been through and [the defendant’s] acceptance of responsibility,” Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, said when asked after the sentencing for a reaction to it.
Neither the victim, members of her family nor Cameron addressed Anderson on Tuesday. The victim declined to be interviewed.
Roberts said after the sentencing that he had spoken to the victim, who “indicated to me she was satisfied with the sentence and felt she’d been heard.”
On June 4, the victim, now 19, tearfully begged the judge to sentence Cameron to spend more time behind bars for causing the crash that paralyzed her from the chest down.
“Please make an example out of him with the sentencing,” said the woman, who uses a wheelchair. “Each day is punishing enough for me. I don’t need to be reminded of what happened.
“This is my reality and I’m living it,” she concluded. “So, please, all that I am asking is for you to give him a stiffer sentence. He’s well past his due.”
The crash occurred near the junction of North Main Street and Gettysburg Avenue around 12:20 a.m. March 30, 2011, Roberts told Anderson on June 4. Cameron, who had been drinking, was driving his Chevrolet Cavalier and arguing with the victim.
Cameron told police that he threatened to drive the car into a pole, the prosecutor said. He swerved the car toward a pole to scare her but apparently lost control and struck a pole farther north on the same side of the road at a speed of more than 60 mph, Roberts said in June.
A blood test showed that Cameron’s blood-alcohol level was 0.09 an hour and 15 minutes after the accident, according to Roberts. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.
Because Anderson rejected the plea agreement, Cameron could have withdrawn his guilty pleas and gone to trial. On Tuesday, he chose to stand by his guilty plea.
Cameron faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 on the aggravated assault charge.
He had no criminal record except for a misdemeanor theft conviction in 2005 and a conviction for violating his bail in the crash case by possessing marijuana and alcohol. He served an 11-day jail sentence earlier this year for the violation, according to Roberts.
Are you kidding me?!
‘Superior Court Justice William Anderson imposed the sentence two months after rejecting a plea agreement that called for Cameron to spend two years behind bars.’ So he now gets 2 1/2 years……yep that EXTRA 6 months will teach him !!! and with good behavior and time served he’ll be out before a 1 1/2 what a joke…and a sad one at that.
Wow okay I agree w/ pretty much everyone else now. Maine needs MUCH stricter sentencing laws. She’ll never walk again, on top of 1200 other things she’ll never be able to do. Meanwhile he’ll get a sweet work-release deal and be out of prison in 8 months.
I’m sure it will be fun for her (the victim) to see him walking around w/ another girl 10-years his junior when he’s out of prison.
I want to hurt him in the spine
This sentencing is shameful.
This is one of the reasons why our community is in the shape it’s in. There is no teeth in the sentencing. Six years with all but………I feel bad for this girl and her family members, I believe their expectation was probably for a little more time for this crime.It also sickens me every time I read ” with all but” at the end of every sentence. If the prisons are full, build more!
suspending ones license does not stop them from driving
wow really that P.O.S GETS TWO AND HALF YEARS FOR TAKING A GIRLS ABILITY TO WALK AND HAVE A FUNCTIONING LIFE WHAT HELL IS WRONG WITH THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. SMH. And to the family I’am so sorry this low life scum didn’t get life
This disgusts me to no end. This poor girl lost the ability to move freely due to this man’s actions and this is what he gets? 2 1/2 years!!!??? What is wrong with our courts here in Maine????!!!! Disgusting!!!!
This is crap. Hands down. Two and a half years for a 19 year old girl basically losing the rest of her life? She had her whole life ahead of her, marriage, children and someday grandchildren, a good career, all of it was taken by this man. And he only has to spend two and a half years in jail, and this girl gets to suffer the rest of her life. Its disgraceful.
Umm Im NOT dead thank you very much, I can STILL do everything I could do when I could walk it might take a little bit longer or be a little more difficult I can STILL have children I can STILL get married I can STILL have grandchildren and I am actually going to school for business I STILL have my whole life ahead of me obviously you don’t know anything about someone being in a chair!!! so learn the facts before you sit there and say I cant do anything just because I am in a chair!
Corie — In no way do the people posting here mean to denigrate your resolve, capabilities, or fortitude. We simply are so pained that this f**ktard gets off with a mere 30 months for robbing you of the kind of young-adulthood so many of us enjoyed and cherished. You go, girl: you’re gonna make it all happen and prove an inspiration to all who know and meet you. But still — permit us to express our outrage that the POS known as Gordon gets to walk in 2015, and that you don’t. We are all rooting for you, honey, as you play the hand that was dealt you.
Oh well learn the facts of what someone can do in a wheel chair before you just assume my life is over. Its my new normal life! Like I said I can do anything anyone else can just differently.
I didn’t mean it the way you took it. I just meant it was kind of a slap to the face that he gets two and a half years and your in a wheelchair for an indefinite amount of time. Sorry for feeling bad for you, I’ll try and not make that mistake again. As a matter of fact, I tend to my 50 year old mother that has MS, and she is stuck in the same spot, in a chair. I understand you can do things by yourself, thats awesome, but are you going to sit there and tell me that before that accident you would have CHOSEN to be in the spot your are in? I don’t know anyone that would chose the life path you were forced down, and I am sorry your on that path. Maybe some counseling will make you a tad less bitter and realize that all the comments here, including this one are in support of you, and aren’t meant to be disparaging.
Now wait a minute! That young ladies life is NOT over! She is a beautiful young lady that is more than capable of doing anything she puts her mind to do. I don’t agree with the sentence at all, but she is not dead and has a whole life ahead of her. You go girl!
She is beautiful and smart and this horrible experience has made her stronger. You can have a wonderful, full, happy life and I hope you do!
2.5 actual years in jail, a fine and his license suspended. Oh, there is more, he has a previous conviction for theft AND he violated bail conditions by possessing marijuana and alcohol. Yeah, this guy REALLY gets it. He gets the Maine is soft on criminals so why follow the law?
The Sentence is a JOKE, the Judge is a Joke, and the system is a JOKE…I feel so bad for the true VICTIM here…..what about HER life?
I’m sorry, I am very sympathetic to what she has been through but its not as if she was forced to get into the car with him. She knew he had been drinking and made that choice. He should never have allowed her in the car or driven himself but some responsibility needs to be put on her as well.
Two in a half year’s. What was the judge thinking.