Stephen Betts, Bangor Daily News
A 30-year-old Waldoboro man was sentenced Thursday, July 28 to seven years in prison with all but one year suspended after admitting to sexually assaulting a young girl a decade ago.
Jessie J. Gehrmann pleaded guilty Thursday in Knox County Unified Court to one count of gross sexual assault and one count of unlawful sexual contact. He was sentenced to seven years in prison with all but one year suspended and will be on probation for three years upon his release.
Gehrmann will also be placed on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life.
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald said that while the family of the victim would have preferred a longer sentence, they were satisfied with the outcome. He said the victim and her family did not want her to have to testify. Because the crimes occurred 10 years ago, the case would have boiled down to the victim’s testimony versus Gehrmann’s, and Gehrmann previously denied the accusations.
Gehrmann was arrested in March by Maine State Police. An affidavit filed in court by police stated that an investigation began in October 2015, when the mother of the victim contacted police. The mother said her daughter, who is now 15 or 16, had begun to harm herself, and eventually the girl acknowledged she had been sexually assaulted by Gehrmann in 2006.
