PORTLAND — A federal judge Wednesday ordered the supervised release of an Auburn woman charged with making a false statement while buying a gun from a licensed dealer. She gave the dealer a false address, police say.
Andrea Duteau Androscoggin County Jail
Andrea Duteau, 43, is facing a felony charge, punishable by up to 10 years in court and a fine of up to $250,000.
According to an affidavit by Scott Hill, a task force officer with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Duteau bought two Taurus semiautomatic pistols on Jan. 14, 2020, from Auburn Pawn Shop, which is a federal firearms licensee in Auburn.
A Lewiston police detective recovered the guns as well as paperwork and a receipt for the purchase that same day, but not from Duteau, according to the affidavit.
That Lewiston detective contacted Hill to report the discrepancy, he wrote.
Hill contacted the manager of pawn shop, who gave him the paperwork that had been filled out by Duteau. In that paperwork, she had given her address as 313 Turner St., Auburn.
Hill and a federal agent interviewed the landlord at that address, who said Duteau had moved out with her children about a year earlier.
Nearly two weeks later, during an interview with Hill and the Lewiston detective at the Lewiston Police Department, Duteau said her address was 313 Turner St., Auburn, and told them she had stayed there the night before.
About a week later, Hill spoke again with the landlord at that address, who said Duteau had sent her a Facebook message shortly after her interview at the Lewiston Police Department telling the landlord she had lied about her place of residence to a federal agent and asked the landlord “not to speak to agents further if she were to be approached again.”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John H. Rich III approved Duteau’s supervised release from Cumberland County Jail in Portland on an unsecured bond of $10,000 to a residential placement facility pending trial.
She will be supervised by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services.
Conditions of her release include working or seeking work and having no contact with anyone who may be a witness or victim in the case.
Duteau must get medical or psychiatric treatment and participate in a program of inpatient or outpatient substance abuse therapy and counseling if directed by her supervisor.
She is barred from having any alcohol or illegal drugs, including marijuana, and may be tested at random. She also is prohibited from having any firearms or other weapons.
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