PORTLAND — A former Sabattus man who served a three-year sentence for his conviction on federal gun crimes is back in jail for allegedly violating terms of his release.
Scott A. Estes, 42, appeared in handcuffs and a jail suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court where his attorney, Robert Andrews, was seeking to have Estes released from federal custody to be placed on house arrest so he could work and enroll in a substance abuse program.
Scott Andrew Estes
Estes was sentenced in October 2019 for having a stolen gun and being a convicted felony with a gun, after pleading guilty earlier in the year. In March 2021, he finished serving his prison sentence and began a three-year period of supervised release.
Estes moved to Portland after his release and works for his landlord at that property, Andrews said.
“He decided he would like to get treatment,” Andrews said of Estes’ substance abuse issues. “He would like to fix this problem.”
Andrews called two witnesses Wednesday to testify about the feasibility of his proposal.
One of the witnesses, Sheila Estes, who is Scott Estes’ wife, testified that she would be willing to serve as a third-party custodian if Estes were to be released on house arrest with electronic monitoring and regular drug and alcohol testing.
If Estes were to violate the terms of his release, his wife would be required to report the violation to authorities.
“I can stand up to Scott,” she said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Green told Magistrate Judge Karen F. Wolf on Wednesday that Scott Estes had already violated the terms of his supervised release while living with his wife.
Green said Estes should be released from jail only if it were directly to a bed at a residential substance abuse treatment program.
He said having Estes’ wife supervise his behavior is a “dangerous prospect.”
Green said releasing Estes on house arrest “would be a recipe for failure.”
In November 2022, a judge had made more stringent Estes’ conditions of his release after his probation officer cited repeated violations of drug and alcohol prohibitions between May 2022 and November, according to court records.
“It is clear the defendant is struggling to abide by his conditions of supervised release,” U.S. Probation Officer Toni Baker had written.
Since November, Estes has again failed several tests for drug and alcohol use, Baker wrote in court papers, recommending his release be revoked.
He was arrested last week.
Estes faces up to two years in prison for violation of release on each of the two felony convictions.
Judge Wolf on Wednesday denied Estes’ efforts to be released on house arrest.
She said that after his screening Monday for a drug program in Lewiston or Saco, Estes might return to court to again propose his release from jail.
“I want you to get well,” she said.
Estes’ underlying convictions stem from a 2017 call to 911 from a woman who told dispatchers she was driving her truck with Estes, her boyfriend at the time, who was the passenger.
She said he had pointed a gun at her.
A seven-hour standoff with police ensued, ending peacefully with police recovering a .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol that had been reported stolen.
He had been a convicted felon and prohibited from having firearms.
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