PORTLAND — The woman who accused district attorney candidate Seth Carey of sexual abuse said Thursday she had no choice but to stay at his home and endure his repeated sexual propositions and three sexual attacks until her father arrived from Alaska to get her.
She said her mother had no place for her other than a couch, and her female friend in Lewiston was living in Section 8 housing and could not legally take in another resident.
The woman had lived in her car before renting a room in Carey’s Rumford home, then moved out briefly to live with her boyfriend.
She escaped that physically abusive relationship by moving back into Carey’s home, she testified at the second day of a hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court on Carey’s possible disbarment.
“It was better than getting beat up every day,” she said. “I didn’t fear for my life at Seth’s.”
She added that Carey’s behavior toward her had been “completely inappropriate.”
The Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar brought a five-count complaint against Carey, but dropped one of those counts Thursday, shortly before resting its case.
Carey’s law license has been under suspension since last spring. Since then, he won a two-way primary to capture the Republican nomination as that party’s candidate for the office of district attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.
During cross-examination of the woman who filed for a protection from abuse order in Rumford District Court last spring, Carey’s lawyer, James Howaniec, grilled the woman over Facebook Messenger exchanges she had with Carey, seeking to cast doubt on her allegations of his sexual harassment and abuse.
The woman had sent a photo of her buttocks in a thong to Carey, after he had allegedly sexually assaulted her.
She said Thursday she had sent the photo to him by mistake, intending to send it to a friend. She explained that she had been engaged in a Facebook Messenger exchange with her friend at the same time as her conversation with Carey about moving her car and got confused on which message board she was posting.
Carey had asked the woman to record a basketball game on TV that featured his college alma mater, Clemson University. The woman had accidentally recorded a different channel.
Carey then ordered her out of his home. Shortly afterward, the woman had filed a protection from abuse order.
Howaniec suggested she filed for the order because Carey had evicted her and not because he had harassed and abused her sexually.
In a message to Carey, the woman accused Carey of taking back a car he had lent to her “because I wouldn’t sleep with you.”
Howaniec asked her about why she slept in the bed of the man who was her “sexual predator.”
She said her room and most of the house smelled from his wine-making, and she was allowed to stay in his bedroom if neither he nor house guests was present.
She testified that, as the harassment worsened, she would avoid the house on weekends, which is when Carey tended to stay at his Rumford home.
At one point during the proceeding, a lawyer for the board questioned why the defendant had possession of the cell phone of Carey’s accuser, who was on the witness stand.
After an open discussion among attorneys from both sides and the judge, the phone was handed to the board lawyer, then passed to a court clerk by a courtroom marshal.
The woman said her phone had gone missing from Carey’s home around the time a Maine State Police detective she had met with about Carey’s behavior had entered the home and noticed surveillance cameras in the house, including one aimed at her bedroom.
She said someone had deleted chunks of copy from her Facebook messages between her and Carey.
Howaniec pointed out the woman was no stranger to the protection from abuse process, noting she had filed two complaints for protection from abuse more than a decade ago — including one against her ex-husband — before filing last spring against Carey. A protection from abuse complaint had been filed against her last year by her ex-boyfriend.
On Thursday morning, Nadir Behrem, a psychologist who performed a psychological evaluation of Carey last summer, diagnosing him with a personality disorder, said, “when he doesn’t get an answer that he wants or that he likes, he has a really tough time accepting that and he seems to pursue other avenues available to him and pushes the issue.”
Behdem said Carey’s personality problems is “suspiciousness and holding grudges.” He also said there was “quite a bit of evidence of grandiosity,” that causes Carey to believe he possesses some “special beliefs or skills that others don’t recognize.”
When judges or lawyers have filed professional complaints against him, Carey “seemed to have the impression that they had something against him. I got the distinct impression that he felt that he wasn’t being treated fairly.”
Behdem said Carey sometimes “tends to make poor decisions in general because his perceptions can be wrong.” That can lead to decisions that are not well-informed, Behdem said.
He said Carey would benefit from long-term psychotherapy for personality disorder and psychiatric treatment for ADHD.
Behdem said Carey has “high-average intellectual functioning” and was “a very passionate person, (who) when he wants something, he fights for it.”
Although he sometimes misperceives things, he is not delusional, Behdem said.
Carey took the witness stand late Thursday afternoon, but choked up while being questioned by his lawyer, dabbed his eyes with a tissue and was unable to continue. He is expected to take the stand again Friday morning.
Seth Carey looks to supporters during his hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Wednesday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
Seth Carey listens to testimony during his hearing at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Wednesday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
James Howaniec shows an exhibit to the prosecutor in Seth Carey’s hearing at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Wednesday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
Seth Carey confers with his lawyers during his hearing at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Wednesday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
Seth Carey listens to testimony during his hearing at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Wednesday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
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