AUGUSTA — A man who hid written notes of apology to victims of his sexual assaults in the box of the board game “Sorry” was sentenced Monday during a hearing at the Capital Judicial Center.
David W. Morissette, 46, of Winslow, pleaded no contest to two charges of unlawful sexual contact involving two different girls over a period of several years in Winslow.
He was found guilty by Judge Evert Fowle and was sentenced on one of those counts — having unlawful sexual contact with a girl under age 12 between October 2010 and March 2012 — to serve an initial four years in prison, and the remainder of the eight-year split sentence was suspended. Once Morissette is released from prison, he was ordered to serve 12 years on probation.
On the second charge, of having unlawful sexual contact with a girl under age 14 in Winslow between October 2001 and January 2003, he received a fully suspended five year sentence, followed by an additional four years’ probation.
Conditions of his probation prohibit him from having unsupervised contact with children under 16 and from having contact with any of the victims.
Morissette had been a teacher at Lawrence High School prior to his arrest, but the victims named were relatives, not students.
A number of additional charges of unlawful sexual contact, of possession of sexually explicit materials of minors and of violating conditions of bail were released in exchange for the pleas.
District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said the handwritten notes in the board game were discovered following a car crash last spring when Morissette was injured and told people to look in the game box.
“Cases where it is one person’s word against another are difficult, but important as nearly all sex crimes occur behind closed doors,” Maloney said on Wednesday. “I applaud the bravery of the children in this case and the family members that believed them which enabled the state to stop a predator.”
Victims indicated that the assaults occurred at night and caused them severe trauma.
According to reports from Maine State Police contained in the court file, Morissette crashed his vehicle on West River Road on April 26, 2015, on the way to meet police about an outstanding warrant for his arrest and a pending bail violation which involved allegedly failing to give the court his correct address.
Trooper John Lacoste reported that Morissette also had a cellphone on him at the hospital, where he was taken for treatment of injuries, and that phone had the ability to access the Internet, another alleged bail violation.
Lacoste also said that when he arrived at the crash scene, Morissette did not know his name or the day.
Later, hearings were continued at the request of defense attorney Robert Sandy who sought time to review investigative reports as well as “copies of writings attributed to Mr. Morissette, and four discs of digital recordings.”
Although the state dismissed counts charging him with possession of sexually explicit materials, records indicate the defendant agreed to forfeit all devices that had been seized by the state, including a MacBook and Apple iPad.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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