A Newport man with a history of sexual offenses is facing additional charges related to allegations that he attempted to take photos and videotape a child in the bathroom of a Walmart in Palmyra.
Marc Alberi, 46, was arrested Monday on a charge of possession of sexually explicit material depicting a child under the age of 12 after police found a laptop containing sexually explicit images of children ages 5 to 8 hidden under a floorboard in a linen closet in his home, said Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy.
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Police originally were notified of a complaint of a man trying to use his cellphone to take pictures of an 11-year-old boy using the urinal in the Walmart restroom, Almy said. The boy notified store security officials and a Walmart manager used surveillance tapes to identify Alberi, who is a registered sex offender with eight prior convictions, he said.
Alberi also is facing charges of violation of privacy and prohibited contact with children under the age of 14.
“He is a dangerous predator,” Almy said. “The word needs to get out to the public that this is a dangerous man.”
On Monday state police obtained a search warrant for Alberi’s home at 404 Elm St., where Trooper Scott Duff located the laptop under a fake floorboard in a bathroom linen closet, Almy said.
“That trooper was right on the ball,” Almy said. “He went into the guy’s bathroom and checked the linen closet. He could see that there was one wooden board different from the rest of the floor, and when he picked it up, there was a Toshiba laptop computer that was warm to the touch.”
State police crime analysts found images of male and female children with their private parts exposed, Almy said.
Alberi is a registered sex offender with five convictions of unlawful sexual contact and three convictions of gross sexual assault. All eight convictions stem from the Jan. 20, 1998, disposition of a case in Oxford County, Almy said. He did not have details of the case but said Alberi was sentenced to 12 years in jail with all but five years suspended and six years’ probation for one count of gross sexual assault.
On the other two counts, he was sentenced to four years each to be served concurrently. For the five counts of unlawful sexual contact, he was sentenced to two years in prison per count to be served concurrently.
A 1998 report in Lewiston’s Sun Journal newspaper said the eight convictions came when Alberi pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of children, including the rape of a 12-year-old, while seven other counts were dropped as part of a plea deal. Alberi was described in the report as the former owner of a summer camp who took boys and teens on canoe trips and lured victims to his home by lavishing them with expensive gifts.
At sentencing in the 1998 case, Alberi blamed his actions on having been molested when he was 13 and promised the judge he would undergo counseling, the report said.
As a convicted sexual offender, Alberi is not allowed to have contact with anyone under the age of 14, a condition that he violated in Newport in November 2010.
“He had a 13-year-old boy working for him, and neither the victim nor the victim’s mother knew he was a convicted sex offender,” Almy said. He was convicted of prohibited contact with a child under 14 and paid a $500 fine.
Alberi was released on $2,500 cash bail Tuesday morning from the Penobscot County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in Bangor District Court on Nov.13.
Almy said he did not know the conditions of his release and said that his bail — which is set by the county bail commissioner — should have been higher. Because of corporate policy, the Walmart manager who helped with the investigation declined to comment.
“All I can say is that the Walmart manager and the trooper involved in this case were really on the ball. Between them, they did a good job,” Almy said.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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