THOMASTON, Maine — A second judge agreed Wednesday to keep bail at $500 cash for a Thomaston man accused of sexually assaulting four young girls on multiple occasions.
This came despite the effort of the prosecutor to have the bail amount doubled for 64-year-old Robert J. Robinson.
Judge Patricia Worth ordered bail to remain at $500 cash. That bail had been set Tuesday by Judge Susan Sparaco when she approved the issuance of an arrest warrant on Robinson for a count of felony unlawful sexual contact and a misdemeanor count of unlawful sexual touching.
Robinson had been free on bail following his arrest two weeks ago on two counts of Class A gross sexual assault, two counts of Class B unlawful sexual contact and two counts of Class D unlawful sexual touching. The most serious Class A felony offenses each are punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Worth said she was not going to second guess Judge Sparaco on the bail amount.
Defense attorney for the day William Pagnano said Robinson was not a risk to flee the state. Robinson has lived in Thomaston for a long time and had worked for the town, Pagnano said. Robinson had been the animal control officer and a traffic control officer for Thomaston but resigned those positions when the investigation began.
Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody, however, urged Judge Worth to set bail “significantly higher.” Baroody said these offenses were not one-time events and that Robinson had sexually assaulted one of the victims in the newest cases many times.
The prosecutor also pointed out that since Robinson was released on bail, he had gone into a laundromat where a victim was and he did not even have any clothes to wash with him.
The investigation began April 5 when a parent reported that Robinson had assaulted two children. The investigation by Knox County Detective Justin Twitchell led to him obtaining an arrest warrant from the court and apprehending Robinson.
He was released on $25,000 unsecured bail for the first offenses.
After the sheriff’s office announced his arrest, two other victims came forward to report abuse by Robinson. The offenses with one victim occurred nearly 10 years ago while the other occurred in 2014.
According to the most recent affidavit filed to obtain the second arrest warrant against Robinson, one victim said Robinson had come over to her house to read the bible and assaulted her while she was on the couch. The incident was reported to police, but the victim did not want to provide details at the time and no charges resulted. Robinson sent the family a written apology, a copy of which is included in the court papers.
The other victim said the sexual assaults occurred when she was 6 and 7 years old.
As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Robinson remained incarcerated.