BANGOR – The mother of a teenager sexually abused by a former Pleasant Point police officer is seeking $6 million in damages from him and the tribe.

Margaret Mitchell of Perry filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Bangor less than one week after Carlos Bones, 40, was sentenced in Penobscot County Superior Court to four years in prison with all but 21/2 years suspended for sexually abusing his 14-year-old baby sitter.

The lawsuit claims that in abusing the teenager between December 2003 and January 2004, Bones deprived the girl of her constitutional due process rights to liberty, privacy, bodily integrity and personal autonomy as protected by the Fifth and 14th amendments. On her daughter’s behalf, Mitchell is seeking $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Bones.

The lawsuit also argues that the tribal government failed to adequately hire, train and supervise Bones. Mitchell is seeking $1 million in compensatory damages from the tribal government. She also wants a jury trial.

“We brought the civil rights claim against the Passamaquoddy Tribal Government,” Mitchell’s attorney, Brett Baber of Bangor, said Tuesday, “because we believe there is strong evidence that the tribe, in particular the Police Department, looks the other way when its officers engage in sexual activity with minors.”

Tribal Counsel Craig Francis said Tuesday that because the tribal government has not yet been served with the lawsuit, he could not comment on it.

Bones was convicted in September of three counts of sexual abuse of a minor by a Washington County Superior Court jury after a two-day trial. The jury of three women and nine men found Bones not guilty of three counts of gross sexual assault.

He took the girl and his young son in December 2003 in his police cruiser to his apartment, where he kissed and fondled the teenager and asked for oral sex. The next month, at Bones’ request, she performed oral sex, but retained evidence of the act on her T-shirt.

Bones, who had been living in Fairfield, continued on Dec. 29 to maintain his innocence at the sentencing. He faced a maximum sentence of five years per count.

His attorney, Frank Cassidy of Machias, filed a notice of appeal after the sentencing.

Cassidy said Monday that he would not represent Bones in the federal lawsuit.

The sentencing was held in Bangor because Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar, who presided over the trial, was scheduled to preside in Penobscot County during December.

The justice ruled that Bones could be free on bail pending appeal but increased his pretrial bail from $25,000 surety and $2,500 cash to $100,000 surety and $10,000 cash.

Bones spent four months in the Washington County Jail after his arrest in January before he was able to make bail last year.