One of two women who filed complaints against Clarence “Skip” Spurling earlier this year that resulted in the suspension of his law license now alleges in a lawsuit filed this week in Kennebec County that he sexually assaulted her.

Clarence Spurling

That allegation is among 11 counts in the lawsuit naming both Spurling and his law office; other counts include false imprisonment, invasion of privacy and both negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Sheldon Tepler, the woman’s attorney, also filed a motion for a writ of attachment against Spurling and his law office’s assets, seeking a $900,000 judgment.

Attempts to reach Spurling and the attorney who represented him in the complaints that led to the suspension of his law license were unsuccessful Friday. It was not immediately clear whether Spurling has other legal representation.

In an affidavit filed with the lawsuit, the woman, who the Kennebec Journal is not identifying because she is an alleged victim of sexual offenses, details what she can recall from a 13-hour period from the time she met him at his office July 9 through the morning of July 10.

The woman wrote she had hired Spurling, 67, to handle a legal matter that was time sensitive, and she agreed to go with him when he invited her out to a restaurant near his law office on Water Street in Gardiner. At the restaurant, she said she was invited to order food and drinks, then became severely impaired and “lost all conscious awareness of myself and my surroundings.”

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She said Spurling brought her back to his office, where he attempted to sexually assault her. When she became sick, court papers say, he offered her water, but she said it didn’t taste like water. He then drove her to his home in Pittston where he held her overnight. He had told her he lived “in the middle of nowhere,” and that no one would find her nor would she find her way back without him.

At his home, she said he took her clothes from her, eventually giving her only a T-shirt to wear. She said he continued to touch her sexually until she “regained sufficient mental and physical faculties” to stop him the next day.

She said she recalled seeing a handgun and bullets on his bedside table. In her affidavit, she wrote, “I was scared for my life and thought Spurling was going to hurt me if I tried to leave. I also felt like I was physically and mentally incapable of leaving, given my state of impairment.”

The woman wrote she had disclosed a prior sexual assault to Spurling and that he must have known she would be “strongly, viscerally disinclined towards any kind of sexual advance from him,” and that any kind of sexual encounter would cause severe emotional distress.

The allegations made in the lawsuit vary significantly from how the incident was portrayed in order of immediate interim suspension, which notes that Spurling admitted kissing the woman but denied engaging in a sexual act. The order also notes that Spurling denied the woman was a client, despite the fact she had come to him in his professional capacity and had paid a retainer.

Under the order for his immediate interim suspension, Spurling was required to close his social media accounts and close his office. Attorney Kevin Sullivan and the Board of Overseers of the Bar have been appointed as co-receivers.

 

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