LFRED — A forensic computer expert testified Tuesday that former Kennebunk High School teacher Jill Lamontagne and the male student she is accused of sexually assaulting exchanged 94 text messages between May 28 and June 9 in 2017.
The pair also exchanged 43 telephone calls over six months, Saco Police Department Detective Fred Williams testified during the second day of Lamontagne’s trial in York County Superior Court on 14 counts: six Class C felony charges of gross sexual assault involving an individual over whom she had instructional, supervisory or disciplinary authority; two Class D misdemeanor charges of unlawful sexual contact; and six Class D misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse of a minor.
The former student, who is now 19 but was 17 at the time of the alleged assaults, took the stand again Tuesday after testifying Monday that he believed he and Lamontagne were in love. The Press Herald does not identify victims of alleged sex crimes without their consent.
The teen had been having trouble with his grades and Lamontagne’s defense attorney, Scott Gardner, said his client had volunteered to help the boy with his English courses so he could graduate with his classmates in June 2017.
The teen’s parents, his friend Caleb Shields, Kennebunk Police Detective Stephen Borst, and Kennebunk High teacher Jason Sullivan, who was an assistant principal at the time, also testified Tuesday.
Williams, under questioning by prosecutor Nicholas Heimbach, said one of the text messages sent to the alleged victim’s phone from Lamontagne’s phone on May 28, 2017, said “can’t stop thinking about you.”
Another text to the teen’s phone from Lamontagne’s number said, “My heart is racing,” Williams said.
A third text, sent June 9, 2017, at 1:23 p.m. said, “Will you call me and talk.”
On Monday, the teen had testified that he and Lamontagne had oral sex in a closet in her portable classroom and at her home in West Kennebunk. He said their relationship began to change as the end of the school year approached, and that he had tried to take his life on June 9, the day he was supposed to be at school for an assembly for graduating seniors.
Instead, he went home from school that morning, drank “six or seven Twisted Tea” alcoholic drinks and took some medication, he testified Tuesday during cross-examination from Gardner, Lamontagne’s defense counsel.
His parents, who had attended the assembly believing their son would be there, arrived home, saw his condition and took him to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
His mother, a nurse, became emotional when she testified about finding their son unconscious when they arrived home that day.
Gardner noted that were some discrepancies between the time period the teen told an investigator on July 12, 2017, that he and Lamontagne had sexual encounters and the time period he referenced at trial.
Gardner questioned the teen further, noting that after one alleged May 2017 encounter at Lamontagne’s home, the two had talked about how much they loved each other and what the future might hold.
“Perhaps plan a life together?” Gardner asked.
“Possibly, yes,” the teen said.
Gardner asked the teen if he would accept Lamontagne’s two children.
“Not now, but yes, then,” the teen said.
Gardner asked if the teen had been planning to support the family.
“I don’t know what I was planning,” he said.
Gardner noted that the teen had retained an attorney and suggested he was planning to sue Lamontagne and RSU 21.
“I’m not aware of that,” the teen said. He said he filed a motion to keep that option open.
“If she were found guilty that would help you in a civil case,” Gardner said.
“It would if I go forward with it,” the teen responded.
Caleb Shields told prosecutors that his friend seemed very confident at the beginning of the second semester in 2017, but as the semester went on his friend got quieter and sad.
“I knew something was wrong,” Shields said.
Shields testified that on one occasion, he was awakened by a call from Lamontagne, who asked if he was with the alleged victim and how he was doing. Shields testified that Lamontagne told him to tell the teen she loved him, but under cross-examination he said that communication may have been by text message.
Lamontagne grew up in Kennebunk and graduated from the high school in 2006, going on to earn a master’s degree in education in 2013. She resigned from the high school after teaching health there for about five years. Her father is a longtime teacher at the high school and her husband is an electrician. The couple have two young children.
The courtroom was full of observers Tuesday, many of them supporting Lamontagne and her family. However, her supporters didn’t hold signs outside the courthouse as they had on Monday, when Kennebunk High science teacher Melissa Luetje said her former colleague has been falsely accused.
The trial will resume Wednesday.
Correction — Testimony Wednesday revealed an error in the calculation of the number of phone calls exchanged between the alleged victim and Jill Lamontagne. There were 43 calls during a six-month period in 2017, not 86 as stated in testimony Tuesday.
Former Kennebunk High School teacher Jill Lamontagne and her attorney, Scott Gardner. A detective said a text from the phone of Jill Lamontagne, above, to a student said “can’t stop thinking about you.” (Tammy Wells/Journal Tribune)
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