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A Hancock County judge on Monday reversed a ban on Eliot Cutler from accessing the internet while the former two-time gubernatorial candidate remains out of jail on probation.
Cutler, who was convicted in May 2023 of possessing child sexual abuse materials, can only use the internet while being supervised either by his wife or brother, the judge ruled.
Cutler, 79, was released from jail on a $10,000 bail last month. He has been accused of violating his probation conditions five times since September. He had been held in jail since Feb. 9.
Monday’s hearing marked the second time Cutler’s probation revocation hearing has been continued in the past month. Hancock County District Attorney Robert Granger is seeking to have Cutler’s probation fully revoked, which would result in Cutler serving more than 3 years of additional time behind bars.
He was rearrested in February after Maine State Police allegedly found him at a South Portland hotel with pornographic DVDs, violating the terms of his release.
After his latest release, Cutler found several passwords to his electronic devices that he previously had not provided to police. In April, he was accused of withholding the passwords, triggering his fifth alleged probation violation.
The state filed a motion to continue the probation revocation hearing to allow the state more time to access his devices.
In the interim, the judge granted Cutler internet access between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, supervised by his wife or brother. Cutler must notify his probation officer at the time of his internet use and the supervisor must be present, the judge said.
During last month’s probation revocation hearing, Cutler said he was struggling at the time of his February arrest because, after a previous violation, he was barred from accessing the internet. He said the new condition limited him from accessing essential online services, like remote therapy, banking information and medical records.
Cutler, of Brooklin, was further ordered to continue private sexual behavior treatment.
If the remainder of Cutler’s 39-month-probation is fully revoked, he could be incarcerated for more than four times longer than the 8 months he initially served. Cutler’s initial sentence in 2023 called for him to serve 9 months of a 48-month sentence — with the rest suspended if he could abide by his probation conditions — but he was released in January 2024 after serving only 8 months because of the state’s “good time” law.
The judge noted that Cutler’s latest arrest indicated he was in “full relapse mode” since sometime after January; rather than being deceitful and purchasing a computer — which the judge said he could have done without being caught — Cutler was a “desperate man” and bought DVDs.
Cutler went nearly 20 months without any violations, the judge said, adding that he was in private counseling and abiding by the conditions of his court-ordered sexual behavior treatment.
There was no date set for the continued probation revocation hearing, but the judge estimated it could be in August.
Cutler was first arrested in March 2022 after police executed a search warrant of his Brooklin home and discovered 142,000 images and videos of child sex abuse materials. About 84,000 of the images involved children under the age of 12, according to court documents.
