BANGOR, Maine — A Bradley man was sentenced Wednesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to four years in prison with all but eight months suspended for sexually abusing a female relative in 2008 and 2009.
Timothy Damien, 44, also was sentenced to four years of probation. As a result of his conviction, Damien will have to register as a sex offender for life.
Damien pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of unlawful sexual contact, both Class C crimes, as his trial was about to begin.
Through an American Sign Language interpreter, Damien, who was born deaf, issued a tearful apology to his now 16-year-old victim at his sentencing.
“I am really, truly sorry for whatever I did to you in the past,” he signed to interpreter Marvin Sallop of Boston. “I swear to never, ever, ever do it to you again or to anyone else.”
The victim, who was in court on Wednesday, did not address Superior Court Justice William Anderson. Carlene Engstrom, the victim-witness advocate for Penobscot County, said she had been asked to speak on the girl’s behalf. The girl is not deaf.
“She loved the defendant as a father figure,” Engstrom told the judge. “She feels conflicted. She hates him for what he did. What she wants him to do is get help.”
In his address to the judge, Damien signed, “I want to get better.”
Conditions of Damien’s probation include sex offender treatment, no contact with the victim or her family, no unsupervised contact with minors, not being in places where children congregate, such as playgrounds, and no possession of pornography.
More than a year ago, the Penobscot County grand jury indicted Damien on five counts of unlawful sexual contact and three counts of unlawful sexual touching.
He faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on the charges to which he pleaded guilty. The other charges, which included Class B crimes that carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, were dismissed Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Alice Clifford, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, told Anderson what the victim would have told the jury if Damien had gone to trial.
“If the victim were to testify, she would say that when she lived with the defendant in Bradley she would wake up in the middle of the night with him on top of her,” she told the judge.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor said that Damien would come into the victim’s bedroom at night and awaken her, then use physical force to hold her down. He also held his hand over her mouth so she could not scream or call out for help.
The girl tried to keep him out, Clifford told Anderson, but Damien broke into her room even though she put a lock on the door and a chair under the doorknob in an attempt to keep him from abusing her. Clifford said that Damien tried to keep the girl from telling anyone about what was happening.
“He threatened to kill himself if she told,” the prosecutor said. “Once, he held a knife to his throat to reinforce that idea.”
Clifford recommended that Damien be sentenced to five years in prison with all but three and a half or four years suspended and four years of probation.
Defense attorney Randy Day of Garland urged the judge to send his client to a treatment facility rather than prison. Day said that for Damien, prison would be a “silent hell” without access to interpreters.
Damien had been on bail since he was arraigned last July 9, Clifford said after Tuesday’s hearing. He was arrested Monday when he did not return to the courthouse after jury selection. He was to have been in court for a hearing on a motion to suppress, she said.
He was not fingerprinted or photographed Monday night and was considered by jail personnel to be uncooperative, Clifford said Tuesday.
Through Sallop, Damien told Anderson after he entered his plea that because there was no interpreter at the jail, he did not understand what jail officials wanted him to do. After Anderson accepted Damien’s plea on Tuesday, Sallop went to the jail to interpret for him.
Sallop was one of three interpreters in the courtroom on Monday, when a jury was selected, and on Tuesday and Wednesday. While Sallop sat at the defense table, Jana Owen and Natalie Atlas, both of New York City, took turns sitting in front of Anderson interpreting the proceedings for Damien. A fourth interpreter on Tuesday was available for a deaf woman who had been called as a witness for the trial.
The court system is required by law to provide language interpreters for criminal defendants. While there are a number of American Sign Language interpreters in the Bangor area, the court had to go out of state to obtain enough interpreters certified to translate the legal language used in court proceedings.
The final cost for the interpreters’ services was not available Wednesday.
Jails are getting full
Exactly! Jail is not working. Well except for in Arizona! Joe Arpaio puts criminals to work and imagine the crime rate has dropped considerably!!!!
Ol’ Sheriff Joe is also a Facist. So if that’s what suits you, by all means, lets run things that way. While we are at it, lets make all the prisoners wear pink uniforms with degrading slogans on them, because we can, because we are better then they are. Right?
Does the title really have to specify he is deaf? Why could it not be left as “A Bradley Man…”
Don’t stop there, why specify that it’s a man?
Oh I had plenty of phrases to chose from that could have better worded this article, but I thought the flag police would hurry in and get the comments removed. I believe the guidelines to these comments are only enforced on days that don’t end in Y.
So I figured I would stick with the concept of that the story didn’t have to headline this person was deaf as it was not relevant to the crime at hand, making the point to readers that the person is deaf and the BDN wants a group of “Don’t punish the impaired and disabled” group to start a riot in the streets, or readers are supposed to feel sorry for the person.
Goodness gracious, wow. Your posting speaks volumes on your ignorance related to deaf experience. As Deaf person reading your post, I’m very offended by your remarks.
R-
I’m offended that you’re offended.
Your comments are the exact reasons why I don’t mingle with hearing people. I hate your kind.
R-
“Deaf Bradley Molestor Sentenced for Molesting Female Relative”
The point is that being deaf has nothing to do with the crime. It is meant to get sympathy for the offender. Do you think he should get special treatment because he is deaf?
I wasn’t getting that at all. What I saw was a leadup to the last line of the article, so that people could complain that that money wasn’t worth spending. He wasn’t presented as deaf and deserving of sympathy; he was presented as deaf and wasting even more tax money than hearing offenders.
I’m seriously asking you, not sarcastic: Where do you see this article playing for sympathy?
That was not my point. My point is that he’ll not get equal treatment like prisoners in the jail system. Hearing prisoners can access to TV with sounds, speak with jailers, participate in counselling sessions, group therapies and so on. Deaf prisoner won’t have any of that because hearing jailers do not know what to do with them. They’ll deny him the opportunity to rehabilitative himself. They will make sure he’ll stay in solitary confinement (They will say that it is for his protection) the entire time he is in jail. They will not allow the captions to be shown on its TV screen (I know because I was there once before as they consider it as a special privilege – if you can hear the sounds, then I think it is special privilege as well!) — basically, deaf prisoners are incredibly oppressed in jails more than hearing prisoners do. And you are ignorant for making these comments.
R-
8 months? put the judge in jail and disbar him!!!!!
This is a travesty of justice.
I am glad he demonstrated remorse.
Just like with any other person on trial for hurting or killing someone of course they show remorse cause they’re cought!!
Because he was caught and being punished is why he showed remorse. No other reason.
Stop that. He does not need jail time, he needs treatment.
I must have to agree with Ricky Taylor. If you put a Deaf person in Jail where there’s no access to his communication needs. Sending Bradley to the treatment with an interpreter would be much more beneficial to him.
Tim communicates quite well on his own. He can speak and read lips. What treatment has been successful? He dragged it out for the victim until right before trial when he knew his goose was cooked. His sentence should be counted in years, not months.
Sex offenders CAN NOT be rehabed!!!!
embarassed for you for making that statement!! best for him? but i’m sure u must be kidding!!!
Studies have shown over and over again that perpetrators do not respond to treatment. It is why SAPPI, which used to fund a program for perps, decided to abandon it. Lacking any effective treatment, then, the only answer is to lock them up and throw the key away.
” Stop that . He does not need jail time, he needs treatment ” … wow ..
On Wednesday, the prosecutor said that Damien would come into the victim’s bedroom at night and awaken her, then use physical force to hold her down. He also held his hand over her mouth so she could not scream or call out for help.The girl tried to keep him out, Clifford told Anderson, but Damien broke into her room even though she put a lock on the door and a chair under the doorknob in an attempt to keep him from abusing her. Clifford said that Damien tried to keep the girl from telling anyone about what was happening… You call that ” he does need jail time , he needs treatment !!! ” Geez .. if he do that to your child , that mean u will say ” oh he need treatment and not need jail time ” .. Wow… He could throw in jail and lock in cell, throw the key away … and he will think about it for a long time … that girl have a scar for long time ….. think about it …. i say again , ” wow ”
As a social worker, I am leary of treatment for sex offenders. I worked with a family who took in a little girl (7 yrs old) whose father had sexually abused her for years. Supposedly he was receiving “treatment” and his counselor changed their story from “he cannot be rehabilitated” to “he’s cured.” When he was supposedly cured and he and his wife (who chose not to believe her own child’s accusations) attempted to get back custody of the girl it came out that while he was being “treated” he was sexually abusing his young son, who for whatever reason had been returned back to the home. Thankfully both children are now in a loving home and have no contact with this sex offender that was cured with treatment.
Clearly the article is written to stir emotion.
Some people may be stirred by what this “father figure” did to the young girl.
Others stirred by the leniency shown by the courts for this crime.
And others stirred by the fact the state brought in 2 interpretors
from New York.
While the BDN couldnt provide a cost for the out of staters expenses
it would be easy enough to do some quick , back of an envelope addition.
2 people @$350 per day, each. Travel time-$400 ,each. Per diem expenses-$205, each.
It sure adds up quick.
This mans depravity will cost us all quite a sum.
But the biggest cost is the broken trust and shattered dreams of the , now , young woman.
Hello Einstein, I think the reason why they hire interpreters out of state when there’s no qualified interpreters in the state of Maine. Which is why they need to hire the most qualified interpreter to make sure that there is no misunderstanding in the court.
That is what this article would lead you to believe, but there ARE qualified interpreters in the state of Maine, but hypothetically, a person in that position COULD keep firing interpreters as a way to keep postponing their case until the state had no choice but to hire out of state interpreters…….just sayin’
Zippy39, your assumption is far-fetched one. Shame on you.
This is disgusting! 8 months??? A sympathy sentence because he’s deaf?
IMO, the soft sentence has nothing to do w/his being deaf but everything to do with Maine’s lenient sentencing of sex offenders. Just another in a long line of token sentences judges hand out to Maine’s “most expendable”…our children.
Last time I checked we didn’t even have mandatory sentencing for these crimes, meaning that w/a sympathetic judge, one could get away w/a slap on the wrist. Nice, huh?
Completely sickening.
I couldn’t agree more.
8 months? WOW. Throw the judge in jail too.
Prison would be a silent hell for him. Good, because his victim was in her own silent hell for having to keep this to herself for a time.
It seem to me that child murders and molesters get off easy in Penobscot County, 8 months for the guy in Bradley 30 years for the guy that killed an 18 month old child in Bangor and he had a prior in Massachusetts for a prior assault on a child. I know if it was any other State than Maine these people would be doing hard time. not 8 months but years in jail.
Another travesty of justice in a sex abuse case. His disability should have had no bearing on his sentence but clearly it must have. 8 short months and this pedophile is free to propagate his deviant evil ways on another innocent child.
Tearful apology,the only tears he’s shedding are for himself. Loser
Im not saying its right, but people have been having sexual encounters with children and doing other sexually taboo acts since people have existed. Apparently, after thousands of years of punishing people for it, people still find the need to commit such acts. I think that speaks volumes about humans, as a species. We are all wired the same, dont trick yourself into thinking just because you find sexual acts with minors wrong that you are, at your core, any different then someone who disagree’s with you. I personally think its absolutely disgusting and have a great distaste towards people who commit sex related crimes, but its undeniable that this sort of behavior is clearly inherent in the human species.
Have to disagree. It is not inherent. It is an aberration.
A logically based retort to my statement with some sort of factual basis or well thought out explanation which serves to qualify your position would be preferable to 3 3 word sentences. I find no reason to differ in my view. It is an aberration… an inherent one.
don’t know what you’re thinking but i’m not thinking about raping a child. pretty sure i’m not wired the same as you! just sayin
I suppose I didnt know I was thinking about raping a child. I thought I had clearly said such things are absolutely disgusting. However, with your insight into my psyche, you have found the truth and you have helped me to see it. Thank you, Oldlogger, thank you for your brilliant wisdom in the matter at hand.
i’m sorry for the way that came out. i meant we’re not all wired the same as the dead beat child abuser. but after rereading my statement i was wrong
We are all wired the same. We all are built of the same basic components. There is nothing physiologically different between you, I or him. Its just a matter of how everything works together. Its like using a blender. Lets say the hypothetical wiring ive spoken of is a pile of fruit. Lets assume that there’s a load of different kinds of fruit in equal amounts in said pile. Think of this as the wiring, or, what makes us human. Now, life (I mean this in the subjective way, or as in, life as the individual perceives it) takes the fruit it wants to use and throws it into the blender. Out comes a smoothie, or, in this case, a person. Depending how life is feeling at the time, you might end up with a tasty strawberry banana, or if life is having a bad day, you might get something gross that’s made with some bizarre jungle fruit that tastes like caveman foot. Either way, the starting pile was the same. Life just produced something different. My analogy doesnt really convey what I am thinking, but I also am not going to devote pages worth of material to a BDN post. Regardless, philosophy, physiology, science, genetics, whathave you, all prove that people are the same. Cheers.
He says, “I’m sorry for whatever I did to her…” Then he is not really sorry at all. To make a sincere apology, one has to be specific about the actions for which they are apologizing. The sentence should have been longer for that ignorance alone.
Wow. He received a shorter sentence. That is not fair !! He should receive a hash sentence . Dont you think ??