Calais teen charged with sexual assault of girl

MACHIAS – A Calais teen-ager who went to jail for his role in causing $100,000 in damage to an Eastport home has been charged with rape.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh said Bradley Demolet, 18, was charged with gross sexual assault involving a 13-year-old girl. Cavanaugh described the girl as an acquaintance.

Demolet appeared in 4th District Court in Machias on Monday and bail was set at $10,000 single surety or $1,000 cash, with conditions. He remained in the Washington County Jail on Tuesday night.

In 1996, Demolet was sentenced to the Maine Youth Center after he and some other boys caused nearly $100,000 in damage the year before to a home overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay owned by John and Helen Sullivan. Demolet was 12 when the vandalism occurred.

Although he had been ordered to remain in the Maine Youth Center until his 18th birthday, he was released within weeks. Recently, Demolet has been living in Calais.

The parents of the 13-year-old girl became suspicious of Demolet’s attention to their daughter and began asking her about it, according to an affidavit filed in District Court.

At first the girl denied any sort of sexual relationship, but then told her mother what had taken place, the affidavit said.

The girl said that Demolet started touching her when they were watching movies. “He eventually treated her like his girlfriend,” the affidavit said.

The sexual conduct escalated, the court papers said. Sometime in February during basketball tournaments, the girl told her mother, she “acquiesced to his request for sex,” according to the affidavit.

The parents called Calais police, and Demolet was questioned. Initially he denied any physical or sexual contact with the teen-ager.

Later, Demolet allegedly admitted that he had been drinking one night and touched the girl. He told police that the girl had pursued him and said she loved him. “He said he told her they wouldn’t do things because it wasn’t right,” the court papers said.

However, Demolet said that at one point he had sexual intercourse with the girl, the affidavit said. “At this point in the interview Brad became very nervous and asked the officer how much trouble he was in,” the affidavit said. When told his conduct was a crime, Demolet said he wanted to go for a walk.

At that point police arrested him.