AUGUSTA – As his victim and her family watched, a Winslow man decided Thursday to plead guilty to two charges of gross sexual assault instead of taking his case to a jury.

Jurors were to begin hearing evidence Thursday against John K. Paradis, 39, in Kennebec County Superior Court when he entered a conditional guilty plea, pending the outcome of a Maine Supreme Judicial Court appeal.

Paradis received separate sentences on each charge.

On the first count, Justice Nancy Mills gave him 10 years in prison — with all but 3½ years suspended and three years probation. He received an eight-year suspended sentence — with three years probation to be served consecutively — on the second charge.

Paradis was indicted in May 2009 on two counts of gross sexual assault and two counts of unlawful sexual contact for incidents that occurred between Jan. 16, 2007, and Nov. 2, 2008, in Winslow. The charges list the same victim, a girl who was 15 and 16 at the time.

In exchange for the plea, the prosecution dismissed the unlawful sexual contact counts.

Paradis was previously convicted of one count of assault on the same girl — but not a sex offense.

Conditions of probation ban Paradis from contact with girls younger than 18, including his daughters.

His attorney, Ronald Bourget, requested that Paradis be allowed to see his daughters under state supervision. Mills refused.

The conviction will stand unless Paradis wins an appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He is appealing Mills’ refusal to dismiss the grand jury indictment that lodged the four charges against him.

Bourget lost his bid to keep Paradis from being jailed while the appeal is pending.

 

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