2nd sex offender moves near Dover-Foxcroft schools

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Another registered sex offender has moved into the neighborhood of the Morton Avenue Elementary and SeDoMoCha Middle schools.

Brent Sutherland, 44, formerly of Bucksport, recently moved into Goodwin’s Trailer Park across from the elementary school, according to Lt. Scott Arno of the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department. Arno said Sutherland notified his department on Thursday, the day he was released from Maine State Prison, that he was living in the mobile home park.

Sutherland joins two other men, both registered sex offenders, who have moved to Dover-Foxcroft in recent months.

“We will be monitoring all of the activities of these registered sex offenders,” Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer said Sunday.

According to the Maine Sex Offender Registry, Sutherland was convicted of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact in Ellsworth Superior Court in 2003. He also was found guilty of gross sexual misconduct and unlawful sexual contact in Penobscot County Superior Court.

The Ellsworth cases, Sutherland’s latest convictions, stem from a night of drinking in August 2002 that resulted in two women, then ages 18 and 20, being assaulted. Sutherland received three years in prison for each of the felony charges and 364 days in jail on charges that he furnished liquor to minors and provided a place for them to drink.

Police also said that Erlon Noyes, 33, a registered sex offender who was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, moved recently to Lancaster Avenue.

Last month, Troy Bemis, 39, a registered sex offender with a lengthy criminal history, moved into a home behind the middle school and across from the elementary school. Bemis was convicted in 1999 of unlawful sexual contact with three girls, ages 9 and 10.

Bemis’ proximity to the schools prompted a community meeting in which parents asked police and state officials how such a development could be prohibited in the future.