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A wealthy Maine lawyer, Democrat, and former gubernatorial candidate has pleaded guilty to child porn charges this past week.
Eliot Cutler, 76, who has served politicians pleaded guilty to possession of thousands of child sexual abuse images.
Judge Robert Murray accepted Cutler’s plea agreement. It requires that Cutler serve nine months in jail out of a four-year sentence plus six years on probation for four counts of possessing sexually explicit material of a child under 12. Cutler is to register for life as a sexual offender, and he will be monitored and be limited to access around children.
"It marked a remarkable fall for a man who once served as an aide to the late Sen. Edmund Muskie, as the top energy and environmental adviser to then-President Jimmy Carter, and launched a powerful environmental law firm in Washington, D.C.," according to the Associated Press.
Cutler lost twice for his run for governor of Maine; first in 2010, then in 2014.
"My behavior helped to support an industry built upon their abuse, and I hope with all my heart that they can find healing and dignity," Cutler stated to the court.
Expressing remorse, Cutler made no excuses for his behavior. He said he would devote his remaining years to “redemption.”
He claimed he failed to seek help because he was "embarrassed, ashamed, and deeply, deeply sorry.
“I failed to meet my obligations to myself, to my family, to my friends and to civilized society,” Cutler added.
The genesis of the case was a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in December of 2021, which then passed the information to the Maine State Police that someone in Maine had either downloaded or uploaded a single illegal image.
"Between 2014 and 2021, prosecutors say Cutler downloaded more than 80,000 images of children younger than 12 engaged in often violent and unusual sexual acts, according to the agreement," according to CentralMaine.com.
Cutler spent some time in a sex offender treatment center. Cutler’s attorney claimed his client never engaged in inappropriate conduct with children, and hence concluded that the likelihood of recidivism was “virtually nil.”
Neither Cutler nor his lawyer acknowledged that child sex abuse images do not constitute a victimless crime. Each image is evidence of a crime scene.
"The good which comes from this shame depends entirely upon you and how you respond. You’ve alluded to that in your remarks. I can't measure your sincerity in that regard. That will only be proven with the passage of time," Judge Robert Murray told Cutler.
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