A man from St. Albans is serving a nine-month sentence at the Somerset County Jail after pleading guilty to three charges earlier this week.
According to a statement Friday by Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster, Ashton McKenney, 22, of St. Albans, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of sexual abuse of a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor and assault. The charges are each class D offenses.
Lancaster said that his office received a complaint on Jan. 1, where a report was made of an alleged sexual assault that occurred in St. Albans on Dec. 30, 2020. Detective Jeremy Leal was assigned to the case.
“It was reported by parents that their child, under the age of 16, had allegedly been sexually assaulted by an adult male,” Lancaster said. “The investigation also revealed that McKenney allegedly assaulted another juvenile under the age of 16 and was charged with assault.”
Leal’s investigation identified McKenney as the suspect in question. After multiple interviews conducted with the sheriff’s office and the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office, McKenney was charged.
On the sexual abuse of a minor charge, McKenney was sentenced to serve nine months at Somerset County Jail in East Madison followed by a year of probation. Conditions of probation include no use or possession of alcohol or illegal drugs, submitting to random searches and testing for alcohol and illegal drugs, no contact with the victims, and complete evaluation and counseling as directed for both substance abuse and sex offender counseling.
He was also sentenced to five days for each of the other two offenses, to be served concurrently with the first count. McKenney must also pay a $300 fine.
With his guilty plea, McKenney will now be a tier 1 registrant of the State of Maine Sex Offender Registry for 10 years.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
