The Waldo County Domestic Community Response Team has been selected by a fundraising group that raised money in the name of Amy, Coty and Monica Lake to receive a donation to start an electronic monitoring program in the county.

It’s similar to the program begun in Somerset County last year. In June 2011, Amy Bagley Lake, 38, and her two children, Coty, 13, and Monica, 12, were murdered in Dexter by her estranged husband, Steven Lake, who later died when he shot himself.

In October 2014, Amy’s longtime friend Kelly Gay, of Newport, presented Somerset County Administrator Dawn DiBlasi with a check for $15,000 for the monitoring program. Gay organized the Amy, Coty and Monica Memorial 5K Walk to raise money for electronic monitoring devices to track the movement of people out on bail while charged with domestic violence crimes.

Somerset County became the first to use the devices in August.

A donation presentation to publicize the continuing fight against domestic violence in Waldo County is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 17 at the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Jeffrey Trafton, who was a cousin of Amy Bagley Lake.

Trafton said Kelly Gay contacted him to continue the work necessary to monitor domestic violence offenders. Steven Lake, 37, had a court-imposed protection from abuse order against him and bail conditions forbidding him from having contact with his wife and children. With a monitoring device, Lake could have been tracked when he drove from his business in Harmony to his family’s home in Dexter.

Trafton said he doesn’t have an official amount of how much the Waldo County response team will be receiving, but heard it will be about $10,000. Gay could not be reached for comment Friday.

“This money would get the program up and running with initial start up costs,” Trafton said of the donation. “Then it would leave us with a good chunk of money so if we have a domestic violence abuser who’s out on bail or post-conviction bail and they don’t have any money, we would be able to pay to have the monitoring equipment on that person. That’s why we need a good pot of money to draw from.”

He said Waldo County is no different than any other county in Maine when it comes to domestic violence.

“We had a 48-hour period where we had four domestic violence arrests just this week,” the sheriff said. “It’s a constant problem. A lot of children being exposed to violence.”

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Doug_Harlow

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