AUGUSTA, Maine — The trial of a Lincoln County deputy accused of sexually abusing three minors will stretch into its second week after jurors failed to reach a verdict on Friday.
The jury in the sexual abuse case against Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy Kenneth Hatch III was sent home just after 5:30 p.m. Friday, after more than four hours of deliberation. Jurors will return to the Capital Judicial Center on Monday to resume deliberations.
Closing arguments took place Friday morning, following four days of testimony during the trial of the former Maine Deputy of the Year. Hatch is charged with 22 counts of sexually abusing three women when they were younger than 16, one when she was 6. Hatch is also accused of providing marijuana to one of them.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the single Class B felony count, and five years on each of 21 Class C felonies.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Richard Elliott told the jury Friday morning that the three alleged victims who testified that Hatch had sexually abused them while they were younger than 16 “all have an ax to grind.”
Elliott also claimed that inconsistencies in their testimonies caused the prosecution’s case to “fall like a house of cards.”
But Assistant Attorney General John Risler said it shouldn’t surprise the jury that the alleged victims, who were young teens or children at the time of the alleged assaults, were confused about minor details. He also argued that the three women, as well as other witnesses, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Hatch, 47, is guilty of the 22 felony counts with which he is charged.
Hatch has pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges, including 14 counts of sexually abusing three minor teens, allegedly often in the back of his cruiser and often in exchange for marijuana.
All counts are Class C felonies except one Class B, which alleges he abused a minor younger than 10, including penetration.
Risler told the jurors — and Justice William Stokes confirmed during his instructions — that jurors didn’t have to find the incidents happened in the range of dates alleged, but just that they happened at all, in order to find Hatch guilty.
One alleged victim, now 19 years old, is the subject of 16 of the 22 charges, alleging that Hatch supplied her with marijuana and alcohol in exchange for sex over a two-year period. Another alleged victim, now 30, said Hatch abused her repeatedly, including once in his bedroom while his family was at a soccer game.
The third, now 26, told jurors that Hatch abused her during “ride-alongs” in his cruiser, and once when she was younger than 10, while she slept in a tent outside his house.
But Elliott said each of the alleged victims had motives to falsely implicate Hatch. In one case, Elliott argued, an alleged victim turned on Hatch after she had a baby and could not longer hunt and fish and “hang out” at his house. Elliott said another alleged victim dates the first alleged victim’s brother, and did this “really just to help out her boyfriend’s sister.”
Finally, he alleged that the third victim was angry because she’d been interviewed for an unrelated case.
“In my 30 years of practice, never have I had a case that had so many inconsistencies,” Elliott said. “Every time these witnesses would talk to someone else, there’s a new story.”
But Risler said remembering some details and not others was not unusual. He asked jurors to “remember the demeanor” of the alleged victims when they testified about, in one case, telling her husband she had been abused.
“She may have been feisty, she may have gotten frustrated at times, but in terms of the actual events that occurred, she was very clear,” Risler said of the 19-year-old alleged victim.
Early Friday afternoon, Stokes gave the case to the jury.
Later Friday afternoon, the jury returned with a question for Stokes about whether there was written testimony about the dates of employment of one of the witnesses’ brother. The man had testified that he and his mother arrived home to discover Hatch with the alleged victim.
Hatch’s case was referred to the attorney general’s office by former Lincoln County District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau, now a judge, because Hatch worked closely with that office.
Although the offenses are alleged to have occurred in Lincoln County, Stokes ordered the case moved to Kennebec County.
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