A Bar Harbor businessman with a criminal record spanning more than four decades pleaded no contest Monday morning to multiple charges stemming from a 2018 kidnapping case.
Thomas Owen Alley, 59, was charged with four counts of kidnapping and 11 other charges after he allegedly attacked a woman he knew in Orland more than four years ago. He was accused of choking the woman until she passed out and then threatening her with a handgun, according to court documents.
All four kidnapping charges, which are Class A felonies, and several misdemeanors were dismissed Monday as part of a plea deal with the Hancock County district attorney’s office. In exchange, Alley pleaded no contest to six other charges, including the felonies of aggravated assault, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and criminal restraint with a dangerous weapon.
Alley was indicted in April 2019 on the charges, all of which pertain to different aspects of the Nov. 6, 2018, incident at a home overlooking Toddy Pond in Orland. Over a period of roughly three hours, Alley allegedly attacked the woman, threatened her with a gun and then detained her, police said.
Alley is a commercial real estate investor in Hancock County where, through his company Worthy LLC, he used to own a building on Route 3 in Trenton that formerly housed the now-defunct Acadia Christian School. He sold that building last summer for $1.65 million, according to records on file at the Trenton town office.
He also is a former member of the board of trustees of the Seal Cove Auto Museum in Tremont.
Alley was scheduled to go on trial Monday morning in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court in Ellsworth, but reached a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors.
The Bar Harbor man’s 41 year criminal record includes a variety of crimes in Hancock County, according to records on file with the state Bureau of Identification.
His first conviction — criminal trespass from an incident in Ellsworth — was in 1982, when he was 19. Since then, he has been convicted for 13 other crimes including assault, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, theft, criminal threatening, refusing to submit to arrest and violating a protection from abuse order. He has an assault conviction from each of the past four decades, but has faced minimal jail time. Alley was only ordered to spend a total of 10 days in jail for those convictions.
Attorneys on either side of the case told Justice Robert Murray on Monday that they have agreed on a recommended sentence of seven years in prison, but with most of it suspended. They recommend that Alley serve between 12 and 30 months behind bars and pay restitution of $2,200 to the state victims’ compensation fund, Assistant District Attorney Heather Staples told the judge.
Alley’s defense attorney is Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor.
If Murray agrees to that joint recommendation, Alley could go back to prison for the remainder of his 7-year sentence if he violates the law after being released.
A sentencing date for Alley has not yet been set but is expected to take place later this month.
Under state law a conviction for aggravated assault, which is a Class B felony, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The charges of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and criminal restraint with a dangerous weapon — both of which are Class C felonies — each are punishable by up to five years behind bars and a $5,000 fine.
Alley on Monday also pleaded no contest to the related charges of violating conditions of release and violating a protection order, both of which are misdemeanors.
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate information about the ownership of a building on Route 3 in Trenton.