A 38-year-old convicted sex offender is barred from having a computer and going online for the next year after he pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to harassing young girls by contacting them on Facebook and Instagram even after they told him to stop.
Sumner P. Swett of Owls Head was arrested by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and charged with harassment by telephone or by electronic communication device.
Swett pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday.
The district attorney’s office agreed to a deferred disposition in which for the next year, Swett will be required to undergo counseling, agree to random searches and be barred from having a computer or using the Internet. If he adheres to terms of those conditions, Swett will be sentenced to one year in jail with all but 30 days suspended.
Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody said the law on harassment by electronic communications does not provide for probation, so that is why the deferred disposition was agreed to because it allows the defendant to be monitored for the next year. If Swett violates terms of the agreement, he could receive a year in jail.
According to an affidavit filed by Knox County Detective Justin Twitchell, the investigation began when young girls at Medomak Valley High School and Medomak Middle School in Waldoboro complained to the school resource officer about Swett. The girls told police that he friended them on Facebook when they did not know who he was.
When the girls complained about his messages, he refused to stop. He told some of the girls that he knew where they lived and in one instance said if the girl did not reply, she “would regret it.” He also said if she complained that police “aint gunna do s-“
The sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant and checked Swett’s account and found he had been contacting young girls around the country and that the conversations would become sexual in nature. The girls at Medomak were as young as 14 years old.
The detective said in his affidavit that he feared that Swett’s actions would escalate to a sexual offense.
Swett was convicted in 1996 of gross sexual assault, according to the affidavit. The detective said the Owls Head man recently had been removed from the Maine Sex Offender Registry. There was no reason given for why he was taken off the list.
