Tag: maine

Former Maine gubernatorial candidate busted with kiddie porn

A lawyer who ran for governor of Maine twice was arrested on child pornography charges Friday.

Eliot Cutler, 75, faces four counts of possession of sexually explicit material of a minor under 12 after investigators found 10 files of children being exploited on his computer, according to The Portland Press Herald.

Culter may face additional charges as cops continued to look through terabytes of data on devices seized from two of the former Independent candidate’s homes, the article said.

Officials arrested Cutler at his farm in Brooklin even as the probe continued, prosecutors said. He was being held on $50,000 bail.

“Given the incredibly high bail of $50,000 cash, set on a Friday night after banks are closed no less, it is unclear whether the bail will be posted,” Cutler’s attorney Walt McKee told the newspaper.

The investigation stemmed from a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone in Maine had downloaded or uploaded an illegal image, the report said.

“It was a known piece of child pornography,” Hancock County District Attorney Matt Foster told the paper.

Cutler, a former member of President Jimmy Carter’s administration, ran for governor in 2010 and 2014 after working as a Washington DC attorney.

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Maine Abolishes Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property

Maine became the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture, a practice that enables law enforcement to confiscate millions of dollars worth of property without ever filing criminal charges. Taking effect on Tuesday without the governor’s signature, LD 1521 fully repeals Maine’s civil forfeiture laws, while simultaneously bolstering its criminal forfeiture process, which only authorizes forfeiture after a criminal conviction (apart from a few narrow circumstances, like the owner’s death or deportation). 

Although civil forfeiture is typically defended as a way to fight back against drug kingpins, in reality, many forfeiture cases have been remarkably petty. In Maine, half of all cash forfeitures were under $1,670. 

“It’s a very simple concept; you don’t lose your property unless you used it in the commission of a crime, or knowingly allowed someone else to use it in the commission of a crime,” bill sponsor Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham wrote in May testimony supporting his bill. “It is time to end this work around that makes people prove innocence, rather than prosecutors proving guilt. This is one of the founding principles of our country.” 

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