Source: themainemonitor.org 9/15/25 Across the country, 43 states have outlawed sexual deepfakes, and 28 banned AI-generated child sexual abuse material. A Maine man went to watch a children’s soccer game. He snapped photos of kids playing. Then he went home and used artificial intelligence to take the otherwise innocuous pictures and turn them into sexually explicit images. Police know who he is. But there is nothing they could do because the images are legal to have under state law, according to Maine State Police Lt. Jason Richards, who is…
Read MoreTag: Maine
ME: Tier III Lifetime Sex Offender Registrant Booted from Board of Maine Autism Society After Maine Wire Inquiry
Source: themainewire.com 8/19/25 The Autism Society of Maine (ASM), a non-profit, dismissed board member Nicholas Pike, 29, on Monday after an inquiry by The Maine Wire inquired about why a Tier III lifetime sex offender registrant was serving on its governing body. “The Autism Society of Maine has dismissed a Board member after learning they are listed on the Maine Sex Offender Registry. This information was not disclosed during the application process. We take this matter seriously,” said ASM Board President Melissa Ponce in a statement provided to The Maine…
Read MoreME: Maine supreme court strikes down law that allowed civil lawsuits for decades-old sexual abuse claims
Source: mainepublic.org 1/28/25 Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court struck down a recent state law that had eliminated the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Maine challenged the law after it was sued by dozens of adults who claimed they were abused by clergy members. By removing the statute of limitations, the 2021 law opened the door to civil lawsuits for child sexual abuse no matter how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. But the state’s highest court said Tuesday that once a…
Read MoreME: Orrington residents to choose if they want to limit where sex offenders live
Source: bangordailynews.com 12/1/23 Orrington residents will choose if they want to enact an ordinance that prohibits people on the sex offender registry from living within 750 feet of schools and churches About 35 residents, the board of selectmen, Town Manager Chris Backman and town attorney Andrew Hamilton gathered at the Center Drive School on Thursday to discuss which of three ordinances voters should choose if they decide to vote for the restriction of where registered sex offenders can live. A special town referendum is scheduled for Dec. 11. The public…
Read MoreME: Registrant falsely accused of mass murder because he has the same name
Source: usatoday.com 10/26/23 The claim: Image shows suspect in Maine shooting, previously arrested for child pornography An Oct. 26 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a photo of a man it claims is the suspect in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead. “Lewiston Maine Mass Shooting Suspect Robert Card Has Been Previously Arrested For Child Pornography & Is A Registered Sex Offender Who CAN NOT LEGALLY POSSESS A FIREARM!” reads part of the post. The post garnered nearly 30 shares and more than 350 comments…
Read MoreME: Maine town residents tell leaders they want residency restrictions due to imaginary reoffense rates
Source: wgme.com 10/9/23 An Orrington Select Board meeting last month devolved into an explosive half-hour debate between residents and officials about where sex offenders should be allowed to live within the town. Residents assumed that restrictions on how close registered sex offenders could live to places such as schools and parks were set statewide. But it wasn’t until an offender moved to Orrington this summer that many realized the town does not have those laws in place. … residents were surprised to learn that Maine does not have a state-wide…
Read MoreME: Sex offenders find refuge at hotels funded by FEMA, investigation reveals
Source: ktxs.com 8/30/22 SOUTH PORTLAND, ME (WGME) — Some hotels in a Maine city have been in the spotlight since the start of the pandemic, as they began housing individuals experiencing homelessness as well as asylum seekers. Some hotels in a Maine city have been in the spotlight since the start of the pandemic, as they began housing individuals experiencing homelessness as well as asylum seekers. (WGME) A concerned citizen in South Portland asked the WGME I-Team about it. There are quite a number of sex offenders living in hotels…
Read MoreME: Lindsey Daggett doesn’t care that residency restrictions don’t work. She wants them for “justice”
Source: bangordailynews.com 5/31/22 Lindsey Daggett was 15 years old when she confided in a family member that she had been sexually abused. The man who had molested her for nine years was her mother’s boyfriend. … A bill to require statewide residency restrictions for offenders of sex crimes against children didn’t go forward in the fall because the Maine Legislature was only considering emergency legislation. If reelected, Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Calais, said she plans to submit the bill again, at Daggett’s urging. … “I was tired of being ashamed and…
Read MoreME: Maine Supreme Court: SORNA Ruled Ex Post Facto Punishment for Defendant
[criminallegalnews.org – 11/15/20] In a decision issued August. 13, 2020, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999 (“SORNA of 1999”) was unconstitutionally applied to a defendant in violation of the Maine and U.S. Constitutions’ ex post facto provisions. Read the full article
Read MoreIN: COA – Removal from sex offender registry makes man’s case moot
A man whose name was removed from Indiana’s Sex and Violent Offender Registry on the state’s volition has successfully sought rehearing at the Indiana Court of Appeals, which has now deemed his case moot. Full Article
Read MoreME: Old Town will restrict where sex offenders can live
[bangordailynews.com – 12/17/19] OLD TOWN, Maine — Registered sex offenders who have been convicted of felony-level sex crimes will be restricted from living within 750 feet of areas that children frequent, according to a new ordinance the city council unanimously approved during a special meeting on Monday, Dec. 16. The ordinance prohibits offenders from living within 750 feet of schools, playgrounds, parks or daycares, as well as other places in which children are the primary users. A total of 13 areas were listed on the proposed ordinance as restricted zones,…
Read MoreME: Maine Senate backs bill to extend statute of limitations on sex crimes
[timesrecord.com – 5/1/19] The Maine Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would extend the state’s statute of limitations on sexual assaults from eight years to 20 years. The measure, if approved by the House and signed by Gov. Janet Mills, would put Maine more in line with other states’ sex crimes statutes. The Senate passed the bill without debate. “Only three other states have shorter statutes of limitations than Maine,” Sen. Erin Herbig, D-Belfast, the bill’s sponsor, said during a public hearing on the bill in April. “Several states…
Read MoreME: Sanford sex offender residency ordinance would cite landlords, property owners
The Sanford City Council is considering a sex offender residency restriction ordinance that would cite landlords and property owners for violations. … Sanford Police Chief Thomas Connolly said is was his understanding that the ordinance would fall under licensing and permitting as a zoning issue, and so would be enforced against the property, rather than the sex offender. He said the police department would have little to do with the ordinance unless there was a problem at the location. Full Article
Read MoreME: Law would ban sex offenders from some multi-unit buildings, houses in Maine
[wmtw.com – 2/25/19] UGUSTA, Maine — A proposal at the Maine State House would add living restrictions to Maine’s sex offender law. The bill would ban a convicted sex offender from living in a multiunit building that shares an entrance with a unit occupied by a minor. Specifically, a sex offender who committed a crime against someone under the age of 14 would be banned from living in a multiunit building with a shared entrance with a person under 18. Maine law requires a sex offender who committed an offense…
Read MoreME: Strong board grapples with sex-offender housing limits
[sunjournal.com – 7/21/18] STRONG — Selectmen are facing a request from townspeople to prohibit registered sex offenders from living in specific areas of town. The request was made after a group of people alerted town officials that a resident at Valley Brook housing on Main Street is a lifetime registrant on the Sex Offender Registry. The housing complex is next to Strong Elementary School. “I had some members of the public with some concerns that there’s no sex offenders ordinance here in town,” Selectman Rodney Spiller said at a recent…
Read MoreME: Registered sex offender among those honored at ceremony for murdered children
[narsol.org – 6/26/18] y Jackie Mundry . . . In 2006, William Elliot was sought out and shot because he was a registered sex offender. On Sunday, he will be honored by the Maine chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. His mother, Shirley Turner, says he was on this list because he had consensual sex with an underage girlfriend. “But he was 19 when he got involved with a young girl and ended up on the Maine sex offender registry,” she said. Read more
Read MoreME: Maine’s Parents of Murdered Children chapter will honor registered sex offender
[newscentermaine.com – 6/20/18] BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) — In 2006, William Elliot was sought out and shot because he was a registered sex offender. On Sunday, he will be honored by the Maine chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. His mother, Shirley Turner, says he was on this list because he had consensual sex with an underage girlfriend. “But he was 19 when he got involved with a young girl and ended up on the Maine sex offender registry.” She said. Turner says she’s surprised that Elliot will be honored…
Read MoreME: Sex offender’s art removed from Lewiston exhibit
[UPDATE LINKS 5/7/18] The University of Southern Maine has removed three works by a highly regarded oil painter from a gallery on its Lewiston-Auburn campus after learning that the artist is a sex offender, a decision that has prompted objections from the show’s curator and the Union of Maine Visual Artists. Full Article Related Articles Sex offender’s artwork pulled from USM show at Lewiston-Auburn gallery Arts pieces by Pelican Bay inmates on display at courthouse [triplicate.com 4/25/17 – non-sex-offender art displayed] So we can’t have out art exhibits shown…
Read More