Police in Old Orchard Beach said Thursday that they didn’t encourage the parents who said a man tried to grab their son to consolidate their accounts of several encounters with the man.

Shelly and Clyde Prescott told police on June 22 that Eric Auger of Saco tried to lead their 3-year-old son away from their unit at the Pine Grove Cabins in Old Orchard Beach.

Auger, 37, was arrested later that day and held in the York County Jail until Monday, when police and prosecutors dropped the charge of criminal restraint against him.

Old Orchard Beach police said they have since turned over the results of their investigation to the York County District Attorney’s Office, to let it consider whether to charge the Prescotts with filing a false report.

Shelly Prescott told The Portland Press Herald on Tuesday that Auger twice tried to take their son by the hand and walk away, and that police encouraged the couple to consolidate their accounts of the two incidents into one report, to make the charges stronger.

Deputy Police Chief Keith Babin said Thursday that there is “no truth” to what Prescott told the newspaper.

Babin declined to discuss the incident further, saying that the decision on whether the Prescotts will be charged rests with District Attorney Mark Lawrence. A call to Lawrence’s office was not returned Thursday.

 


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