Eliot Cutler on Wednesday denied to a judge that he broke his probation over his alleged inability to stay away from pornography.
Cutler appeared via Zoom during Wednesday’s hearing at the Hancock County Unified Criminal Court.
Hancock County District Attorney Robert Granger is asking a judge to incarcerate Cutler for another 39 months after he allegedly violated his probation a fourth time.
The judge declined Wednesday afternoon to rule on Granger’s motion after Cutler entered a denial of the allegations.
The judge set a tentative hearing date for April 8 to address motions to fully revoke Cutler’s probation. Cutler will be held without bail until the judge decides whether to revoke his probation.
It was Cutler’s fourth alleged probation violation since December and first since his Feb. 9 arrest when Maine State Police allegedly caught him with pornographic DVDs at a South Portland hotel. The former two-time gubernatorial candidate faces two counts of violating his probation in relation to the incident and has been held since then at Cumberland County Jail in Portland.
In a Feb. 20 motion signed by Granger, Cutler’s probation officer Sam Payson recommended Cutler’s approximately 39 month probation be fully revoked. In a separate court document, Payson said this decision was for the “protection of the community.”
If the motion is granted, Cutler would be incarcerated for a longer period of time than he originally served. Cutler was released in January 2024 after less than 8 months of incarceration because of the state’s Good Time Law.
Cutler, 79, was “unsatisfactorily discharged” from his court-ordered sexual behavior treatment program on Feb. 18, qualifying as his fourth alleged probation violation, according to court documents.
The Brooklin man was receiving treatment, a requirement for his bail, with a Northern Light mental health clinician but failed to attend or participate, according to a probable cause affidavit. A discharge letter said Cutler was unable to complete the program because he is incarcerated.
“This is Mr. Cutler’s 4th violation of his probation conditions in a relatively short timeframe all of which are due to his inability to refrain from pornography and participate in court ordered PSB [problematic specialized behavior] treatment,” Sam Payson wrote in court documents. “Mr. Cutler has demonstrated that he has no intent of following his ordered conditions and is simply searching for ways to circumvent them.”
Although the court set no bail for the Hancock County violations, a Cumberland County judge ordered a $50,000 bail for his Portland violations. The Cumberland County judge had to lower that bail, without impacting his release, so that Cutler could be transferred to Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth, according to a court order. Granger said he expects Cutler to be brought to Hancock County by Feb. 26.
Cutler’s defense attorney, Walter McKee, reached an agreement with the Hancock and Cumberland County district attorney’s offices to handle all the recent charges and probation violations in Ellsworth, according to court documents.
Cutler allegedly confessed on Feb. 9 to Maine State Police officers, who were at the DoubleTree by Hilton for a separate investigation, after they caught him with pornographic DVDs outside the hotel’s parking lot, according to court documents.
Cutler, whose probation conditions barred him from possessing sexually explicit content, allegedly told officers that he “can’t help himself” and that he has “had this problem for 65 years,” according to the police report.
Cutler was on probation for a 2023 conviction of four counts of child sex abuse materials. Before his Feb. 10 arrest, Cutler had allegedly already violated his probation twice. In January, a judge imposed stricter probation conditions and higher bail after Cutler allegedly accessed pornographic materials on the internet on Dec. 28, 2025, and Jan. 2, 2026.
