An Oxford County man convicted of molesting two 8-year-old girls in 2012 is appealing his case to the state’s highest court.
David Hanscom, 64, of Mason Township, which is east of Bethel, was convicted of two felony counts of unlawful sexual contact in 2015. He said the jury’s verdict should be reversed because the court denied his request to make special instructions to the jury on the evidence, and a prosecutor was overzealous in her closing argument.
Last December, an Oxford County court judge sentenced Hanscom to three years in prison with all but 15 months suspended, and eight years of probation. Hanscom has no prior criminal history. He is free pending the appeal.
The two girls, who were 12 at the time of the trial, testified that Hanscom inappropriately touched them over the course of two years while they were visiting his home. Hanscom, who testified in his own defense, denied the contact occurred.
Walter McKee, Hanscom’s attorney, has filed an appeal with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Oral arguments are set to be heard Sept. 14 at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta.
At the time of the trial, McKee argued that the Oxford County judge agreed to explain to the jury that there were two separate instances in which one of the girls testified to being sexually abused: once in a den, and another in a bedroom. In order to find Hanscom guilty, the jury would have to agree beyond a reasonable doubt that both instances occurred in order to return a guilty verdict, he wrote in the appeal brief.
Instead, McKee said, that instruction was not given, making it ambiguous as to which set of facts jurors agreed to. The error wasn’t harmless, he said, “because defendant has a constitutional right to a unanimous verdict, and there can be no confidence that the jury unanimously found that one specific incident occurred.”
He also said that during closing arguments Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Winter personalized the case using the word, “I”; expressed her personal opinion about elements where there was no evidence; attempted to inflame the jury; vouched for the credibility of the state’s child witnesses; shifted the burden of proof onto the defendant and criticized the defense’s case. Those errors, McKee said, amounted to prosecutorial misconduct.
Opposing the appeal, Oxford County Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor said courts have held that children do not have to pinpoint the exact dates when subjected to abuse over many years. The court’s decision not to give the instruction prevented unnecessary confusion, O’Connor wrote.
The girls disclosed the contact after a family discussion on the molestation case of former Pennsylvania State University Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky, O’Connor wrote.
O’Connor noted that Hanscom’s trial attorney, which was not McKee, never objected to Winter’s closing arguments.
“In fact, the prosecutor struck ‘hard blows, but not foul ones,’ O’Connor wrote. “Which was not only her right, but her obligation as well.”
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
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