AUGUSTA — Lorne Sherwood, under the guise of helping a co-worker learn to make more money, attacked and threatened her in his apartment Tuesday, according to a police affidavit.
Sherwood, 45, a convicted child rapist and attempted murderer, was arrested earlier this week on charges of assault and terrorizing and is being in held in Kennebec County jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail, or $2,500 with a pre-trial contact. He was expected Wednesday to be held on a probation violation.
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Sherwood made an initial appearance Wednesday in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Although police spent several hours outside his apartment Tuesday, a charge of creating a police standoff was not pursued.
“Mr. Sherwood’s record is obviously very troubling to me, and after reading this affidavit, it doesn’t reduce my level of concern,” Justice Robert Mullen said Wednesday in court.
The Kennebec Journal is not identifying the woman because she is the victim of an alleged attempted sexual assault.
According to an affidavit filed by Augusta Police Officer Christopher Hutchings made public in court Wednesday, police went to Sherwood’s apartment at 384 Water St. around 9:30 p.m. Monday for a report of an attempted sexual assault.
A 32-year-old Augusta woman told police she gave Sherwood, with whom she works as a telemarketer, a ride home from work. They went into Sherwood’s apartment to discuss how the woman could make more money on the job, Hutchings said. The woman said Sherwood, “asked her numerous times what she was willing to do to make more money,” Hutchings wrote.
The woman, who believed Sherwood was asking for sexual favors in return for money, started to gather her belongings to leave. Hutchings said Sherwood grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth, and threw her to the floor on her back.
“Lorne then positioned himself on top of (the woman) as (she) was screaming,” Hutchings said. “Lorne told her to be quiet or else her screams wold be the last thing she ever does.”
Sherwood then stood up and allowed the woman to leave his apartment. Sherwood never attempted to remove the woman’s clothing during the assault, Hutchings said. The woman was not injured.
Neighbors confirmed hearing a woman scream in the apartment and that she ran out the door.
Sherwood did not respond when police knocked on his door, Hutchings wrote. Police then contacted his probation officer, Mark Fortin, who told officers that a week earlier Sherwood was admitted to MaineGeneral Medical Center for an evaluation after admitting he was “fixating on a female and felt that he may act on his fixations and hurt the female.”
Sherwood, who left the hospital last Friday, admitted during the stay that he was suicidal and made a reference to “suicide by cop,” Hutchings said.
Police continued to watch Sherwood’s apartment throughout the night as he refused their attempts to contact him. At one point police heard movement inside the apartment and the sound of glass breaking. Sherwood spent part of the night standing on a porch roof outside the building, Hutchings wrote.
Sherwood’s neighbors were evacuated during the evening.
Fortin told police he believed Sherwood was in crisis and feared that he would attempt to kill himself. Fortin said Sherwood had knives, such as kitchen knives, inside his apartment.
Police decided not to force their way into Sherwood’s apartment because he was alone in the apartment, was believed to have no guns, and out of concern that Sherwood would attempt to threaten police into shooting him.
Sherwood was arrested around noon on Tuesday without further incident after police secured a warrant for his arrest.
Sherwood in 1996 attacked a 14-year-old girl in Biddeford and nearly strangled her to death. He pleaded guilty to two counts of gross sexual assault and one count of attempting to commit murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping in that attack, according to online state corrections records. He was sentenced in York County Superior Court to 35 years in prison, with all but 20 years suspended, and six years probation.
Deputy Chief Jared Mills said after Tuesday’s arrest that he believes Sherwood posed a threat to the public. Sherwood’s actions and threats were reminiscent of his 1996 assault on the girl, Mills said.
Sherwood chose his victim at random, according to a 1997 story in the Portland Press Herald. Sherwood threw the girl into his car and locked the door. He drove to Hollis, stopping periodically to look for a sufficiently secluded area, the story said. Sherwood ordered the girl to strip, tied her hands with rope, pulled her from the car, raped her twice atop the hood of the car and strangled her with his hands and a plastic pipe until she fell unconscious.
When she came to, Sherwood said to the girl, “You really want to live, don’t you?”
When she answered yes, he helped her collect her clothes and drove her back to Biddeford, the Press Herald reported.
In court on Wednesday, Sherwood, represented by attorney of the day Stephen Bourget, pleaded not guilty to the new charges. Bourget asked Mullen to set bail at $500 cash.
“You may have read the newspaper today,” Bourget said. “That’s not what’s reflected in the case here.”
But Assistant District Attorney Kate Bozeman argued for $2,500 bail in light of Sherwood’s history.
“The state’s concern is that the conduct that is alleged today involved an assault on a woman that the defendant brought into his apartment,” Bozeman said. “When she tried to leave, he threw her on her back and she screamed and he threatened to murder her if she continued to scream.”
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
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