Make a gift in honor of the good that comes from BDN journalism in your hands, and help raise $60,000 this spring to support our reporting. Make a donation now.
If Eliot Cutler is found guilty of violating his probation next week, it will be his sixth violation in the span of less than nine months.
His multiple releases from jail despite his repeated probation violations is unusual, Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy told the Bangor Daily News.
The disgraced two-time former gubernatorial candidate was arrested Thursday in Penobscot County for allegedly violating his probation related to his May 2023 conviction of four felony counts of possessing child sexual abuse materials.
Cutler, 79, spent roughly eight months in jail and earned an early release for good behavior in January 2024. He is on probation for six years after that release.
Cutler’s case is an “anomaly,” said Almy, who has spent nearly 40 years in the seat.
Probation only happens after someone has been convicted, so the presumption is the person should be incarcerated, Almy said. For someone to be on bail or probation and commit multiple violations is unusual, he said.
The more probation violations a person has, the less likely it is that they will continue to be released, Almy said.
“Six times is a lot of times,” Almy said. “Why does he get that different treatment than anybody else? That’s what I don’t understand.”
In another case of a well-known Maine man convicted of what is now called possession of child sexual abuse materials, Dana Wilson, a Bangor-area DJ and former Maine Sports Hall of Famer, was sentenced in 2014 to nine months in jail suspended to be followed by four years of probation, similar to Cutler’s sentence.
But when Wilson was convicted of a singular probation violation, he was sentenced to five and a half months in jail in Penobscot County.
If a person has multiple probation violations, the presumption under state law is that they should be held in custody, Almy said.
“The more times they do it, it becomes more and more unusual that a person would be released,” he said.
Part of Cutler probation includes monitored internet access and to not possess any sexually explicit material. That condition is standard for people who have been convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material or similar crimes, Almy said.
Cutler’s defense attorney, Walter McKee, told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday that Cutler’s arrest was for failing to sign a probation plan document that wasn’t in line with court order. McKee said he had no additional information on Friday.
The first probation violations came in November when Cutler was accused of three probation violations. He accessed sexually explicit materials online and did not tell his probation officer on Sept. 8. Then on Oct. 2, he used an electronic device to connect to the internet unmonitored.
Then on Dec. 28 and Jan. 2, Cutler looked up pornographic materials on the internet at his Brooklin home. More than two dozen sexually explicit images were found at Cutler’s home on his electronic devices.
He was arrested Jan. 13 and a higher bail of $10,000 was set a day later. All of Cutler’s access to the internet and possession of any pornography was restricted as part of stricter conditions.
His fifth alleged violation came in early February after Maine State Police allegedly found him at a South Portland hotel with pornographic DVDs. Police ran into Cutler by chance in the parking lot of the DoubleTree by Hilton while he was holding a brown paper bag and a stack of black DVD cases.
He was arrested at the hotel and was in jail until May 22 when he was released on a $10,000 bail. At that hearing Cutler pleaded guilty to three of the probation violations and one was dismissed.
At the hearing, District Attorney Robert Granger, McKee and the judge had a discussion in chambers. After they returned to the courtroom, the judge said Cutler had abided by his probation terms for the first 18 months and that Cutler was “desperate” when he was arrested in February.
During the hearing Cutler told a Hancock County judge that he would not have entered the pornography shop to buy the DVDs, if he hadn’t been in such “bad shape” over his lack of internet access.
That hearing was continued to June 1, where the judge reversed a months-long ban on Cutler using the internet. He is only allowed internet access while supervised by his wife or brother.
After Cutler’s arrest Thursday, he is held in the Penobscot County Jail and is expected to appear in court Monday.