Eliot Cutler will be sent back to jail for 10 weeks in mid-October after a Hancock County judge partially revoked his probation on Friday.
The former two time gubernatorial candidate, who was convicted of possessing child sex abuse materials in 2023, has been accused of repeatedly violating his probation conditions. Although the state has accused Cutler, 80, of six probation violations, all but three were dismissed.
Judge Patrick Larson ordered Cutler to return to Hancock County Jail on Oct. 15 for a six month sentence, though he’ll get credit for roughly 107 days of time already served for his probation arrests. Cutler, who was awarded a stay to get his affairs in order before returning to jail, has 33 months of probation left on his sentence.
In late July, a Hancock County judge changed Cutler’s release terms and allowed him to bypass the state’s sexual offender program, which is a standard condition for convicted sex offenders, according to Robert Granger, district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties. The court reaffirmed that decision on Friday.
“I didn’t anticipate that the court was going to do a full revocation,” Granger said after Friday’s hearing. “I would have liked to see a little more time and, more importantly, I would have liked to see the treatment program return as a condition of probation because that’s a fairly standard program with sex offenders.”
Defense attorney Walter McKee argued that Cutler has suffered from porn addiction for over six decades, a condition he kept secret from family and friends until his arrest in March 2022, when police raided his Brooklin home and found 142,000 images and videos of child sex abuse materials.
“The tragedy of my life is that I kept my addiction a secret, afraid to ask for help, afraid of the impact on my marriage, my family and friends, on my career, my reputation,” Cutler told the judge. “My failure to ask for help, for decades, was a grievous mistake. The cruel irony of my arrest in 2022 is that it brought down on me and my family all of the horrible consequences that I was seeking to avoid.”
Cutler told Judge Larson his therapists and Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings had helped him into recovery since his latest arrests.
Cutler noted his age and cancer diagnosis and acknowledged he has a short “runway” ahead of him, referencing a previous judge’s warning after his first couple probation violations. In his plea for leniency, he told Larson incarceration would not be helpful to his recovery and that he is a “danger to no one.”
Larson agreed with the defense’s description of Cutler as an addict, and determined his most recent violations were “relapses” of that condition. The judge compared Cutler’s actions to someone struggling with substance use disorder.
Still, the judge said Cutler, who spoke before the judge on Friday, had not taken full accountability for his actions. Cutler blamed Granger and members of the press for the impact his actions have had on his family and friends.
“I assure you, the impact on your family is from you and you alone,” Larson told Cutler. “It’s got nothing to do with what Mr. Granger says, it’s got nothing to do with anyone in the press, it all falls on you. You have to accept the fact that that’s the case. People will think of you as they do, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Granger asked the court to reimpose a prior bail condition that required Cutler to attend the state’s sex offender treatment, one of few that is sanctioned by the state of Maine. Larson declined to do so, ordering Cutler to continue his private sex addiction treatment.
“I wish it hadn’t happened but also I think we’re done with this case now and hopefully never going back,” McKee said after the sentencing. “He has had some really great success with his treatment. Obviously, there were these slips which he identified, but we didn’t think this additional level of significant sex offender therapy was appropriate.”
In February, Cutler was arrested in South Portland after officers found him in possession of pornographic DVDs and a $29 DVD player, which violated the terms of his release. Cutler “hit rock bottom” during that period, he said, and spent two weeks on suicide watch in Cumberland County jail following the arrest.
“All of his bail violations and probation violations occurred during a time when he was [getting treatment] with at least two private providers,” Granger told the Bangor Daily News in a written statement Wednesday. “That treatment appears to have failed to provide Mr. Cutler with the tools necessary for him to abide by his probation conditions and conditions of release. The State feels the sex offender program will provide Mr. Cutler with the structure necessary to address his addictions and remain in compliance with his probation conditions.”
Cutler’s repeated probation violations has sparked the proposal of a new bill dubbed the “Eliot Cutler Law,” aimed at clamping down on habitual sex offenders. The law, introduced by Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), would require convicted sex offenders to serve out the remainder of their sentence after the first probation violation. Granger said he supported the bill.