Lewiston home to 48 registered sex offenders

LEWISTON – The state is placing more registered sex offenders in Lewiston than any other city in the state, according to Maine Department of Corrections statistics.

Lewiston had 48 registered sex offenders living in the city in September, the latest information available. Portland, with almost twice the population, had 39.

Bangor was home to 28 sex offenders in September, while Auburn housed 19 sex offenders.

“We get sex offenders who have always lived somewhere else and yet they end up coming here,” said Lewiston police Officer Bernard Stone, Lewiston’s Child Emergency Response coordinator. “Nobody is thrilled about that.”

Mike Simoneau, sexual offender specialist with the Department of Probation and Parole, agreed that Lewiston receives more than its share of sexual predators deemed to be at risk of re-offending.

When the Department of Corrections attempts to locate a home for a sex offender being released, it considers several factors. One factor is that people convicted of sex crimes are generally required to undergo counseling as part of their probation.

“These people have to receive treatment,” Stone said. “And they have to move to areas where that treatment is available.”

That explanation doesn’t satisfy Laurie Cloutier, a 30-year-old mother of three.

“The other cities have places to help people like that,” she said. “Why does Lewiston have to take so many of them? They bring them here, put them in shelters and protect them. And that makes it harder for people here to protect their children.”

Others suggested more sex offenders end up in Lewiston because the city has more housing for them.

This week a man convicted of gross sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a minor was moved into a Lincoln Street shelter.

Jeffrey Scott Smith, 35, was moved to Lewiston after years spent in and out of prison. He was living this week at Hope Haven Gospel Mission, where sexual offenders have ended up in the past.

Often the Department of Corrections alerts the mission about a person’s past, but not always.

“Sometimes we’ll get a call. We’ll be asked if we have room for this certain person,” mission Pastor Paul E. McLaughlin said. “We’re not required to take them.”

But McLaughlin said the shelter generally allows registered sex offenders to stay until they can find other housing.

“We’re here to help people in any way we can,” McLaughlin said. “That’s what we do unless it jeopardizes the other people staying here. Then we will get law enforcement involved.”

Many sex offenders released into Lewiston also end up staying at St. Martins de Porres, a shelter on Bartlett Street. Others are placed in apartments with arrangements made by the Department of Corrections.