MACHIAS, Maine — A 63-year-old Cherryfield businessman on Tuesday denied allegations by a Washington County woman that he sexually molested and assaulted her when she was a girl.
Steven Pagels, defending himself in a non-jury trial against a civil lawsuit brought by the 28-year-old woman, also denied claims by a witness who testified Monday that he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 and he was 20.
Under questioning by the plaintiff’s Machias attorney, Rebecca Irving, Pagels also denied ever sexually assaulting a third woman when she was a minor.
Irving asked Pagels separately about allegations involving each of the three women, and he issued three denials.
“No, I did not,” he replied each time.
The plaintiff and the other two women are not being identified by the Bangor Daily News because they may be victims of sexual assault. The case is being heard this week by Judge Donald Alexander in Washington County Superior Court.
Pagels has denied the claims made in the lawsuit, filed in 2012, and has not been charged with any crimes.
The plaintiff claims in her suit that she was molested and sexually assaulted by Pagels for a period of about nine years beginning when she was about 7. The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages for his “willful, wanton and malicious” actions against the plaintiff, plus interest and legal costs.
A different judge previously allowed liens to be placed on Pagels’ property to prevent him from selling or concealing assets before the case could be resolved. In his order, Calais District Court Judge John Romei noted it is “more likely than not, that in this action the plaintiff will recover judgment,” including interest and costs, of no less than $5 million.
Pagels operates Downeast Windjammer Cruises and affiliated businesses that provide cruises, excursions, fishing trips and charter and ferry service on a number of vessels sailing or steaming from Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Eastport.
Pagels, wearing the same blue blazer over a white shirt and tie as he did a day earlier, exhibited no emotion as he testified.
Pagels admitted having a sexual encounter when he was 20 with the woman who testified on Monday. However, the encounter was consensual, according to Pagels.
“It was a mutual thing,” he testified.
He denied sexually abusing her.
Although he denied sexually abusing another alleged victim, age 14 or 15, who gave a deposition in the lawsuit, he admitted sleeping with her in the same berth when the two of them were alone on one of his boats. He apologized to her, he testified, for “waking up and inadvertently finding I had put my hand underneath her shirt.”
Irving questioned Pagels about and referred to relationships he has had with other teenagers.
For example, he admitted having a “crush” on a 16-year-old girl who worked for him in Addison in 1987.
“I was attracted to her. As a woman, as a girl,” said Pagels.
“What does that mean?” asked Irving.
“I was attracted to her. Or whatever,” he replied.
Pagels recalled taking that 16-year-old on a trip to Thomaston to see one of his boats and taking her to an apartment he kept there. In the apartment, he confessed his feelings for her, but she rebuffed him, he testified.
When Irving asked him what kind of relationship Pagels expected to have with the teenager, he said, “I never thought about that.”
After divorcing one woman for the second time, he married a woman who was 30 years his junior, he acknowledged. They eventually broke up and she returned to her homeland, the Philippines. He subsequently dated a Filipino teenager, he conceded; they became engaged but later broke it off.
Irving also referred to a deposition in the case in which Pagels admitted having relationships with 16 or 17 other females during one of his marriages.
Pagels also testified in his defense, discussing his business, work schedule and family life. A considerable portion of his testimony focused on the type of ropes he used on his boats. (The plaintiff testified previously that Pagels tied her up with marine rope and sexually assaulted her.) The types of rope he used on the boats were not suitable to tie someone up, he said; in addition, the ropes would have left marks on someone if that person struggled, he said. He never tied up the plaintiff, he testified.
Pagels admitted having the plaintiff give him back rubs, and sharing a bed with her during one trip, but he said he never sexually assaulted her.
The trial is expected to resume Wednesday morning.