Bar Harbor suspect denies assault charges Women complain they were drugged

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BANGOR – A woman on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women in Hancock County testified in her own defense Thursday and denied that either of the supposed victims had been subjected to forced sexual contact.

Stephanie Stark, 46, of Bar Harbor, told a jury that one of the victims willingly “made out” with her co-defendant Peter Mills, 49, when they were at Mills’ Bar Harbor home on the evening of June 16, 2005. Stark, Mills, and two women who were 20 at the time had gone out as a group to a local restaurant and then returned to Mills’ house before one of the alleged assaults took place.

When Michael Povich, district attorney for Hancock County, asked Stark how old Mills is, Stark said she didn’t know. She guessed his age at between 45 and 50.

Stark also testified that she thought one of the women was quite young.

“I thought she was a teenager,” Stark said.

Povich seized upon this statement, pointing out how young Stark believed the woman to be.

Stark immediately tried to correct what she had said.

“I’m sorry. I take that back,” she said. “I thought she was in her mid-20s.”

Povich pointed out that, even with this older estimate, there was a significant age difference between Mills and the younger women.

The two alleged victims of the Bar Harbor incident each had testified Tuesday that Mills was too old for them to have any romantic interest in him.

Povich asked Stark Thursday whether it bothered her that Mills, with whom she had a relationship, was making out with a younger woman.

Stark said she and Mills had a noncommittal, sexual relationship. She knew he was seeing other people.

“I didn’t think it was my business to object to two people doing whatever they wanted to do,” she testified.

Stark said she never had any sexual contact, consensual or otherwise, with either woman at Mills’ house.

Stark is accused of assaulting only one of the two women in the Bar Harbor incident, while Mills is accused of assaulting both.

Stark and Mills also are accused of sexually assaulting a 48-year-old woman in that woman’s Surry home two days after the alleged Bar Harbor assault occurred.

All three complainants have told jurors they believe they drank wine laced with drugs on the nights of the supposed attacks. They have said they have hazy memories of the incidents but that they did not consent to any of the sexual acts they were subjected to, some of which involved sex toys and other objects. All have said they felt strange, disoriented or intensely ill after drinking wine that Mills poured for them. Two of the women said they lacked enough control of their bodies to resist the attacks, while the third said she blacked out.

Mills is facing 22 charges, including gross sexual assault, assault and furnishing liquor to minors. Stark faces 12 charges, including gross sexual assault, assault and unlawful sexual contact.

Stark testified that she touched the breasts of the Surry woman on June 18, 2005, but only because Mills encouraged her to do so. She said the woman was unstable and “constantly lied” but never objected to what Stark characterized as “sexual foreplay.”

“I gave it a try and decided it was something I didn’t want to do,” Stark said of groping the woman’s breasts. “I had an open mind about it.”

Stark seemed to give conflicting testimony at times, saying she could not remember any black fabric duffel bag being brought to the woman’s house and then saying later that Mills brought such a bag to Surry. Police say they found a sex toy in a black bag at Mills’ house when they searched it.

Stark also said she had never seen two videotapes police found in her Bar Harbor apartment. Povich showed her a photograph of the videotapes and asked her to read the titles, but Stark said she could not read while wearing contact lenses.

“Lustonic Woman,” and “Dark Angel,” the prosecutor said as he read the names.

“It doesn’t say that there, does it?” Stark asked, referring to the photograph.

Povich replied it did.

Jurors also heard testimony Thursday from two technicians at the state crime lab in Augusta and from Detective Stephen McFarland of the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office. They also watched a videotaped deposition of a nurse who treated the Surry woman.

Rhonda Damon of Lamoine also testified, saying she worked in June 2005 with Mills and one of the alleged victims at a Southwest Harbor restaurant. She said the woman had presented herself at work as 23 years old, instead of 20, and that she had laughed after the alleged attack about how she had gotten drunk on red wine at Mills’ house.

Mills did not testify in his own defense. Closing arguments are expected to get under way today at 8:30 a.m., with jury deliberations to follow.