AUGUSTA — A former Oakland woman facing multiple charges of sexually assaulting children, including child rape, won a change in her bail conditions Monday after a brief hearing at the Capital Judicial Center.
Sarah B. Conway, 27, now of Canaan, New Hampshire, has been indicted on one count of gross sexual assault and two counts each of unlawful sexual contact, visual sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, all between December 2014 and March 2015. She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and a jury trial is specially set for Jan. 17-20, 2017.
Conway’s attorney, Sherry Tash, told Justice Joyce Wheeler on Monday that the state agreed to an amendment allowing Conway to change the dates on which she could see her infant daughter in November and December. Conditions of bail limit Conway’s contact with that child. Conway is not permitted to have contact with her older children.
Conway was arrested a year ago on charges of child sexual assault. She has been free on bail since December 2015, and a new indictment brought against her in August 2016 included additional charges.
Conway was in the courtroom Monday to watch the hearing, which also involved Tash’s request for more specifics about the state’s theory of how several of the offenses occurred.
The prosecutors, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh and Assistant District Attorney Kristin Murray-James, told the judge that a letter about that had been provided to Tash. They also said they did not intend to call the child as a witness, because other adults were in the room when those offenses occurred.
Cavanaugh said the letter “does not indicate how we intend to prove that. It just told Ms. Tash what our theory is.”
“You’ve gotten the statement about what conduct they’re pursuing,” Wheeler told Tash in court. “You may rely on the statement of conduct.”
Arrest affidavits filed in the court indicate that on Sept. 16, 2015, Conway went to the police in Canaan, New Hampshire, telling Sgt. Ryan Porter that she and ex-fiance Stephen R. Smith used to watch child pornography together in their apartments in Oakland.
In an affidavit by Oakland Police Department Detective Capt. Rick Stubbert, Porter reported that Smith told Conway he had sexually abused his own children and talked her into sexually abusing her children.
“Sarah thought she did this because she liked Stephen so much and she didn’t know how to say no,” Stubbert wrote.
Smith, now 38, pleaded guilty three months ago to three counts of unlawful sexual contact with children under age 12, two counts of visual sexual aggression against a child and one count of sexual misconduct with a child, all of which occurred Dec. 1, 2014, and March 11, 2015.
He was sentenced to an initial 18 years in jail, with an additional 12 years suspended, and 18 years of probation.
At that hearing, the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Kristin Murray-James, told Justice Donald Alexander that Smith repeatedly sexually abused the young girl and boy and showed them child pornography.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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