A former Bar Harbor police officer has been charged in court with sexual exploitation of a minor and other charges.
Larry Fickett, who last worked for the Bar Harbor Police Department eight years ago, also has been charged with possession of child pornography and endangering the welfare of a child.
Fickett, 41, was arrested Thursday, May 2 at his home in Ellsworth after an investigation by Maine State Police, according to a complaint filed in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court. He was released the following day on $10,000 cash bail, according to jail staff.
Robert Granger, district attorney for Hancock County, confirmed that Fickett is a former patrol officer with the Bar Harbor Police Department. He declined further comment.
Fickett didn’t immediately respond to a Facebook message, and no available court documents listed an attorney for him.
Before he worked for Bar Harbor, Fickett also previously worked as a patrolman with the Presque Isle Police Department and as a deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.
The complaint filed in court against Fickett says he did “intentionally or knowingly permit [a child under the age of 12] to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Larry J. Fickett knew or intended that the conduct be photographed.”
The allegations occurred between Jan. 1, 2021 and March 1 of this year, according to the complaint.
Sexual exploitation of a minor is a class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. The child porn possession charge is a class C felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, while the child endangerment charge is a misdemeanor.
Further details about the allegations were unavailable Monday. The court has impounded all other documents in the case.
According to a 2016 article in the Mount Desert Islander newspaper, Fickett resigned from his patrol job in February of that year after being suspended for three days without pay. He had been suspended after an internal investigation for dishonesty and conduct unbecoming a civil servant, the Islander reported.
James Willis, then Bar Harbor’s police chief, authorized the investigation after receiving a complaint from another law enforcement agency about Fickett reportedly asking one of its officers to leave information out of a report, according to the article.
Fickett, who had joined the Bar Harbor department in September 2012, also received a written reprimand in November 2014, the newspaper reported. In that case, he violated a department order by using the lights and sirens on a police cruiser while responding to a non-emergency situation.
