AUGUSTA — An Augusta man has been arrested on a charge of gross sexual assault after an investigation of an alleged sexual assault in Albion in September 2018.

Timothy Boothby

Court papers say Timothy Boothby, 50, met a woman in a bar in Waterville and eventually offered her a ride. Sometime between then and when he dropped her off by some gas pumps in Albion after midnight a sexual assault is alleged to have occurred.

In an affidavit and request for an arrest warrant dated Wednesday, Detective Brittany Johnson, of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, said an investigation into an alleged sexual assault started when an early September 2018 morning report came in of a woman acting suspiciously in Albion.

A caller at 4:10 a.m., reported that a woman had been standing on the porch of the Albion Country Store for several hours. When Deputy Toby Pond arrived, the woman was able to identify herself and give her birth date, but she appeared to be confused and intoxicated and could not say how she came to be in Albion.

After an initial evaluation, she agreed to be taken to a hospital, where she recalled meeting a man in a bar in Waterville and asked to speak to an advocate. Use of a rape kit was conducted.

In a subsequent interview, the affidavit states, the woman could not recall some details of the incident and was concerned that her drink might have been spiked. She said she didn’t remember leaving the bar but recalled being on the ground and trying to stand up and falling down again. She also described being at the Albion Country Store. She said she thought someone might have had sex with her, based on the state of her clothes and some bruises.

A review of surveillance videotape at the bar showed the woman spent some time with a man, playing pool and dancing, and that they left together about 11:20 p.m.

Four days after the alleged assault occurred, Pond was talking to Deputy Jeffery Boudreau about the incident and learned that Boudreau perhaps had encountered the man about 12:35 a.m., pulled over on the side of China Road in Albion. Boudreau said when he stopped to check, the man said he was on his way to a friend’s house in Albion but had stopped to urinate. After hearing some branches break, Boudreau asked if the man was alone, and the man said his girlfriend also had to urinate but didn’t want to be seen. Boudreau checked the registration of the vehicle, and it came back as belonging to Boothby, who was subject to no warrants. Boudreau confirmed the man he identified as Boothby was the man on the bar surveillance tape.

Johnson said she tracked Boothby down, and in questioning him, Boothby said he had met the woman at the Waterville bar and offered her a ride, although he said the woman could not say where she wanted to go.

Asked to describe how drunk he was on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very drunk, Johnson said in her affidavit that Boothby said he was a 3 and the woman was an 8. She said he initially denied having had sexual contact with the woman, but later said she had consented.

When Johnson asked him whether she was in the right mindset to consent to sex, after she fell down and needed his help to get back into the vehicle, he said no.

Boothby is being held at the Kennebec County jail in lieu of $1,000 unsecured bail, with a Maine Pretrial Services contract following his initial court appearance Friday at the Capital Judicial Center in front of District Court Judge Cynthia Montgomery. He is prohibited from using or possessing alcohol and illegal drugs and from going to bars. He is to have no contact with the woman in this case.

Jessica Lowell — 621-5632

jlowell@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @JLowellKJ