A former prison guard, already facing charges in York and Cumberland counties of sexually assaulting a female inmate under his supervision, was arrested again over the weekend on a warrant accusing him of a felony bail violation.
Bret Butterfield, 23, of Auburn was out on $1,000 bail from both counties when an off-duty police officer said he saw Butterfield on Oct. 29 at the Cinemagic movie theater in Westbrook with the woman he is accused of assaulting, according to police.
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Westbrook police obtained a warrant for Butterfield’s arrest days later after Auburn police Lt. Christopher Watkins found that the court order allowing his release on bail specifically says he can have no contact with the woman. Watkins also contacted the woman’s probation officer and discovered she has multiple active warrants for her arrest, according to Westbrook police.
Westbrook police Officer Rebecca Towne interviewed Butterfield before his arrest at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland on Sunday and took him into custody there around 2 a.m., according to court and jail records.
“Bret admitted going to Cinemagic with, and leaving with, (the former inmate). He admitted he saw Lt. Watkins and that is why they left the theater,” Towne said in her report.
Butterfield was brought Monday afternoon to the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland, where he appeared beside attorney Merritt Heminway, who represented him for the day until Butterfield’s attorney in the other two cases can be notified.
Superior Court Justice Thomas Warren set Butterfield’s bail in the new case at $10,000 and ordered him held without bail in the Cumberland County sexual assault case.
The day marked a reversal for Butterfield, who had been granted a bail reduction after a court hearing in York County Superior Court on Sept. 12, slashing the initial $50,000 bail set at the time of his first arrest on Aug. 26 to $1,000.
The victim in both sexual assault cases is a female former prison inmate who was under Butterfield’s supervision while he worked at the Southern Maine Re-entry Center, a state facility in Alfred for women nearing the end of their sentences.
Butterfield was charged twice because he allegedly committed the offenses at locations in both counties while the woman was in custody and while she was out on furlough at her grandmother’s house in Scarborough.
Butterfield, who is married, is accused of having sex with the woman in a prison office, a prison bathroom, her grandmother’s house, in prison transport vehicles and in a hospital room where she was taken while in custody to have her appendix removed.
At the Sept. 12 bail hearing in York County, Butterfield’s wife sat in the front row of the courtroom. His parents and another family member were there to support him as well. At Monday’s court hearing, no one was there to support him.
Butterfield, who quit his job as a guard while he was being investigated, has since lost a construction job and is now unemployed, Heminway told the judge.
Heminway objected to the $10,000 bail amount requested by the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Deborah Chmielewski, but he postponed bail arguments for another date.
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