An Augusta man’s conviction for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy will stand, as will the sentence.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, also known as the Law Court, rejected an appeal by Andrew L. Seamon, 50, who claimed his conversation with a detective should have been kept out of his trial because he was particularly vulnerable at the time she came to a friend’s house to question him. Seamon’s attorney, Caitlin Ross Wahrer, argued during an appeal that Augusta Police Detective Tori Tracy displayed “excessive friendliness” when talking to Seamon. Tracy testified that she had been acquainted with Seamon for a number of years before the June 5, 2014, interview when she asked him about allegations he had assaulted the boy sexually.
“I think she was being ‘the good cop,’ and I think she was being incredibly gentle,” Ross Wahrer said in response to a question by Associate Justice Jeffrey Hjelm last month.
The court’s unanimous opinion, written by Associate Supreme Court Justice Andrew Mead, was published Tuesday on the court’s website.
Seamon’s appeal of his conviction for unlawful sexual contact and his sentence — nine years in prison, with six years to be served immediately and the remainder suspended during 12 years of probation — was heard during an oral argument session May 9 in Augusta.
Seamon, who is serving the in-custody portion of the sentence at the Maine State Prison in Warren, was not at the session.
On Sept. 1, 2016, at the close of a three-day trial, a jury in Kennebec County convicted Seamon of one count of unlawful sexual contact that allegedly occurred May 31, 2012-May 31, 2013, in Augusta. The same jury cleared him of one allegation of gross sexual assault and could not agree on a second count of gross sexual assault, so the judge declared a mistrial on that charge. All the charges named the same boy as victim.
During Tracy’s interview of Seamon, she secretly taped the entire conversation. Seamon sought in vain to keep his statements out of the trail.
He testified that “he was ‘bewildered’ and suicidal and felt that his ‘life was upside down.'” He said he had been in the psychiatric unit of a hospital and was not thinking rationally when he answered Tracy’s questions that day.
Mead wrote that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court found, “Here the totality of the circumstances of Seamon’s interview with Detective Tracy support the conclusion that his statements were voluntary.”
Mead also added, “We find unpersuasive Seamon’s argument that his statements were involuntary because of the friendly nature of the interview.”
The justices also concluded the sentence was correctly imposed.
“It was therefore not an abuse of discretion for the court to consider all three allegations of sexual contact when setting Seamon’s basic sentence for unlawful sexual contact,” Mead wrote.
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Tuesday, “I appreciate the law court’s decision in upholding the conviction and the sentencing decision as well.”
Ross Wahrer was out of the office Tuesday and not available to comment on the decision.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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