HARPSWELL — A 26-year-old Auburn man, charged with sex crimes against a child in Michigan, was captured Thursday by a team of federal investigators.
Michael Bernard, a lobsterman, had been wanted by police in Jackson County, Michigan, for criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13 years old, police said.
According to investigators from the U.S. Marshals Service, Bernard allegedly met the child through an internet site and began an online relationship that lasted several months. It’s also alleged that he traveled to Michigan from Maine to meet the child and engaged in sexual activity before returning to Maine.
The Marshals Service was joined by the Maine Violent Offender Task Force in the search for Bernard.
According to a news release, investigators from that agency developed information on Bernard’s whereabouts Thursday afternoon, which led agents to a docking port in Harpswell.
“Task Force personnel were able to apprehend Bernard as he departed a lobster boat this afternoon without incident,” according to the release.
Bernard is charged as a fugitive from justice and will be arraigned in Maine pending his extradition to Michigan to answer to the original charge.
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