Two testify in trial of ex-coach Trescott man charged in Lubec sex case

MACHIAS – Two of the three alleged victims took the witness stand Monday in Washington County Superior Court on the first day of what is expected to be a five-day trial against a former coach and teacher at Lubec High School.

Gregory Maker, 43, of Trescott faces 11 Class C and Class D sex charges, including three for gross sexual assault. Two of the alleged victims were boys Maker had coached in cross country and basketball between 1999 and 2000.

The third boy, the youngest, is the man’s nephew by a former marriage.

The oldest of the alleged victims, who will give testimony today, is the son of the woman who now lives with Maker.

Paul Cavanaugh, first assistant district attorney, told jurors in his opening statement, “This is a case about abuse of trust.”

Sandra Collier of Ellsworth, Maker’s defense attorney, described her client as having grown up in Cutler and graduated from Washington Academy and the University of Maine at Machias. He is from a “large, close-knit and extended family in the Cutler area which every Sunday night gets together at his father’s house for dinner.”

Maker, who resigned from his teaching and coaching positions at Lubec High School in April 2000, now works as a lobsterman with his father.

Maker’s father and a half-dozen other family members attended the trial’s opening day in his support.

“Evidence will show that none of Greg Maker’s relationships with these boys was a sexual relationship,” Collier said in her opening statement. “All three of these accusers are deeply disturbed.

“This will not be a pleasant trial,” she later said. “Listen with an open mind.”

The panel of 13 jurors consists of nine men and four women. The alternate will be excused before the jurors deliberate, but it is not known by the jurors at this point which of them is the alternate.

In the case of the boy, now age 22, who is the son of Maker’s girlfriend, Maker is being tried on two counts of unlawful sexual contact occurring in September and October 1999.

Collier contended in her opening argument that the boy aligned with his father after a conflict-ridden divorce during his senior year of high school, although he previously had been close to his mother, Maker’s current girlfriend.

In the case of the boy, now 17, who is Maker’s nephew from a former marriage – the families no longer speak – Maker is being tried on two counts of unlawful sexual contact between October 2000 and October 2002, and one count of visual sexual conduct during the same time frame.

Collier suggested that the allegations arose after the boy’s adoptive mother had a falling-out with Maker. Until then, the adoptive mother testified, she had considered Maker the only father figure for the boy, then age 13.

In the case of the third boy, now 21, who ran cross country and played basketball on Maker’s teams at Lubec, Maker is being tried for incidents that allegedly occurred between September 1997 and August 2000. Those include three counts of gross sexual assault, one count of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of unlawful sexual contact.

Collier called that accuser a “deeply troubled young man” who “does not like Maker now and didn’t like him back then.”

The youngest boy, who is now 17 and living in Machias, described Maker touching his penis several times when the boy and his younger brother visited “Uncle Greg” on weekends. The younger brother testified that he himself had never been touched by Maker.

“He told me not to tell,” the boy said. “It was the summer I was going into sixth grade.”

The boy said he didn’t disclose the incidents – which allegedly lasted through his eighth-grade year – until the fall of his freshman year, when he shared the secret with soccer teammates while traveling on a bus.

The alleged victim who is now 21 described being approached twice while in the shower, once at Maker’s home after a pre-season cross country practice before his freshman year.

Having promised him a ride home, Maker allegedly joined him in the shower when all the other teammates had left.

“I didn’t know what to say,” the witness said. “He moved closer and put his hand on my shoulder. Then I felt his penis touch on my rear end. I got out and hurriedly got dressed. Then he gave me a ride home.”

The state will continue presenting witnesses today, including the third alleged victim and two Maine State Police detectives who conducted interviews with the young men in late 2004.