An Indiana man convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor in Lincoln County Superior Court in February will serve one year in a Maine Department of Corrections facility due to a partial probation revocation.
Danny Wayne Douglas, 48, of Thorntown, Ind., returned to Maine in April to face a probation revocation proceeding, just two months after being sent home to Indiana to serve his probation.
He was sentenced to one year in the Maine Correctional Center in Windham on Sept. 24 with one year of probation to follow. Already required to register as a sex offender, Douglas will now also be required to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet as an addition to his probation conditions, Assistant District Attorney Katie Hollstrom said.
Douglas pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor, a class B felony, in February for convincing a cognitively disabled Lincoln County minor to send him sexually explicit photographs. Douglas was extradited from Indiana to Maine to face the charge.
According to an affidavit by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Detective Scott Hayden, Douglas and the victim became friends on Facebook and later exchanged approximately 1,300 texts of a sexual nature.
According to Douglas’ Facebook profile, he was a 17-year-old high school student in Maine. Hayden’s investigation revealed Douglas was a 47-year-old man from Indiana.
In a significant departure from the mandatory minimum sentence required for the sexual exploitation of a minor conviction, Douglas was sentenced to five years with all but 60 days suspended and two years of probation. He was given credit for time served and sent back to Indiana to serve his probation.
At the time, the sentence was supported by the district attorney’s office and the victim’s family.
Douglas’ own cognitive limitations, the age of the minor, who was on the verge of turning 18 at the time of the incident; and the support of Douglas’ father convinced the court Douglas would be successful on probation.
Less than two months later, however, Douglas allegedly admitted to viewing child pornography online and touching a 12-year-old in a sexual manner while at Wal-Mart to his probation officer in Indiana.
Douglas later recanted his statements and it is unclear if Indiana law enforcement conducted an investigation, Hollstrom said.
No criminal charges in Indiana were brought against Douglas for the alleged activity. However, Douglas was returned to Maine for a probation revocation for failing to submit to a search. According to Hollstrom, Douglas was asked to turn in his computer to his probation officer, but the computer Douglas turned in was broken with a missing hard drive.
“We felt (a probation revocation) was the best course of action,” Hollstrom said.
Douglas’ earliest possible release date is Aug. 1, 2016, according to the Department of Corrections inmate database.