May 4 (UPI) — Former Maine gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler drew a nine-month prison sentence Thursday after pleading guilty to four felony counts of possessing child pornography.
Appearing in Hancock County Superior Court in Ellsworth, Maine, Cutler issued an apology before changing his not guilty plea and accepting a deal offered by prosecutors, in which all but nine months of his four-year sentence was suspended.
“That my behavior was the consequence of an addiction is no excuse,” Cutler said at the hearing. “I had countless opportunities to admit that I serious problem and to reach out for help. I didn’t do that. I failed to meet my obligations to myself, to my family, to my friends and to civilized society.
“I am embarrassed, ashamed, and deeply, deeply sorry.”
The 76-year-old lawyer and former independent candidate, who came within a single percentage point of winning Maine’s 2010 gubernatorial election, added that he hoped to devote the rest of his life “to making amends as best I can.”
Under the plea deal approved by prosecutors, Cutler will be on probation for six years, during which he is barred from accessing the Internet except through monitored devices among a series of other restrictions.
He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life as part of the agreement.
In an affidavit filed before his arrest in March 2022, Maine State Police said after acting on tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children they obtained a search warrant and found more than 800 files containing sexual explicit images and videos of children being abused, sometimes violently, by adult men.
Many of the files contained “egregious” images of “very young” children, some as young as 4 years old, police said.
In addition to his close 2010 loss, Cutler again ran for governor as an independent in 2014, finishing a distant third behind incumbent Republican Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud with 8% of the vote.
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