ELLSWORTH — Two-time gubernatorial candidate Eliot R. Cutler was arrested Friday for possession of child exploitation material following a two-month investigation, authorities said.

Eliot Cutler, shown during a run for Maine governor in 2014. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Cutler, 75, faces four counts of possession of sexually explicit material of a minor under 12, said Hancock County District Attorney Matt J. Foster.

That list of charges may grow as investigators sift through terabytes of information seized during two searches that preceded his arrest this week, Foster said.

Troopers from the Maine State Police took him into custody at his Brooklin farm without incident and he was being held at the Hancock County Jail on Friday night.

The four counts are Class C felonies, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Cutler’s bail was set at $50,000, twice what prosecutors had requested. Foster said detectives identified 10 files of sexually exploitative material depicting children that police had seen before in other cases.

Foster said he learned of the investigation Thursday, and decided with investigators at the state police computer crimes unit to make the arrest immediately.

“I believe the state police wanted to make sure there were bail conditions in place,” Foster said.

In addition to the bail amount, if Cutler is released, he will be ordered not to possess any device that can connect to the internet and not to possess any sexually explicit materials.

STATE POLICE RECEIVE TIP

The investigation began with a tip in early December, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent Maine State Police investigators information that someone in the state had downloaded or uploaded – it’s unknown which – a single illegal image.

“It was a known piece of child pornography,” Foster said.

The NCMEC is a federally designated clearinghouse that gathers tips from internet service providers and technology companies when they notice a customer is accessing or distributing illegal material. Staff then send the information to police in the state where the information was accessed or originated.

Police then work backward to connect a person or an address with the internet-connected device that accessed or distributed the material, and often execute search warrants looking to seize any computers, phones or hard drives they can find.

Foster said the arrest affidavit cited 10 files of known child exploitation material that had been found in Cutler’s possession. There was no indication there are local victims, and police are still sifting through what has been seized.

The arrest affidavit will be held under seal until Cutler makes his first appearance in court, but it’s unclear yet when he will see a judge, Foster said. If Cutler, a wealthy attorney, does not make bail this weekend, it could be as soon as Monday.

But if he is released before the weekend is up, the first appearance will be pushed to a later date, and his attorney, Walt McKee, will likely enter an appearance on his behalf, meaning Cutler will not have to show up himself.

McKee confirmed the arrest shortly after police took Cutler into custody, but declined to discuss the contents of the search warrants. He also cast doubt on whether his client would be released this weekend. McKee rushed to Ellsworth after Cutler’s arrest and visited with him inside the jail, but left the facility and said Cutler would be spending the night.

“Given the incredibly high bail of $50,000 cash, set on a Friday night after banks are closed no less, it is unclear whether the bail will be posted,” McKee wrote in a text message.

FOCUS OF SEARCHES UNKNOWN

Police have not spoken yet about why they searched Cutler’s residences at 84 Pine St. in Portland and at 523 Naskeag Point Road in the Hancock County town of Brooklin – only that the searches were prompted by a two-month investigation. On Friday, McKee said the charges appear to be an outgrowth of the search warrants, but he has refused to answer questions about what police said they were seeking.

Cutler declined to comment to reporters on Wednesday, the day of the searches, and a message left seeking an interview with his wife, Dr. Melanie S. Cutler, a psychiatrist who used to practice in Portland, was not returned after his arrest Friday.

The couple lived together for many years in a 15,000-square-foot mansion on Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth, which they sold last year.

Cutler is a Bangor native and twice ran unsuccessfully for Maine governor, in 2010 and 2014. Prior to that, he was a longtime attorney, mostly in Washington, D.C. Before that, he worked for U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, a Democrat from Maine, and in the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Following his second campaign for governor, Cutler was hired by the University of Maine System to help launch a graduated business and law school.

As for the searches of Cutler’s properties, it’s possible more information could come out in court.

In Maine, a judge must sign off on every search warrant. To get judicial approval, police must show they have enough evidence connecting a person to a crime, a threshold known as probable cause. Searches are not fishing expeditions, though. The warrant must be specific about what types of information or evidence police are seeking. Police are permitted to seize only property or information that closely matches what they said they were looking for.

After a search, police must file a receipt with the courts listing the items they seized. Searches don’t always lead to criminal charges but are a sign that an investigation has intensified, and judges sometimes seal search warrants if prosecutors make a convincing case that the public should not be given immediate access.

CUTLER RESIGNS BOARD POST

After the searches of his homes Wednesday, Cutler resigned as president of the board of  the Lerner Foundation, a Portland-based nonprofit. The foundation has recently set up six projects in rural Maine to encourage students to pursue higher education. The news of the resignation was first reported by the Bangor Daily News.

“We were deeply disturbed to learn about the serious accusations brought against Eliot Cutler today,” the foundation’s executive director, Don Carpenter, wrote in an email on Friday. “In his former role on the board of directors, Eliot was involved in high-level strategy and governance and did not directly interface with students who participated in grant funded programming.”

Cutler has been involved with the Lerner Foundation since its creation in 2007. The organization’s namesakes, Emanuel and Pauline Lerner, were close friends of Cutler’s family. When her husband died, Pauline Lerner was looking for a way to do something helpful with the couple’s sizable estate. The foundation started with a $4 million endowment and over its first decade awarded roughly $20 million in grants to various causes.

More recently, the foundation has shifted its focus to its “Aspirations Incubator” program in rural Maine.

Cutler, as board president, earned $50,000 from the Lerner Foundation, according to the organization’s most recent tax filing in 2019. The document also indicated that Melanie Cutler was on the board of directors as well.

COMPUTER CRIMES BACKLOG

The state police computer crimes unit receives scores of tips each year from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sen. William Diamond, a Democrat from Windham, has fought in the Legislature to grant more funding to the unit, which has a backlog of cases.

This year, the Maine State Police were authorized to hire two more detectives and an additional analyst to sift through the material, Diamond said in a phone interview Friday.

“When you see the kind of people who are involved in this, it cuts across all levels,” Diamond said. “The people have the money to spend to buy these things, which means there has to be more production because there needs to be new faces.”

Diamond said the backlog amounts to “hard evidence against these perpetrators,” and that since the new hires, it has been reduced.

“Until they can get to the evidence, the perpetrators are out on the street doing their thing,” Diamond said.

Staff Writers Rachel Ohm, Megan Gray, Eric Russell and Jordan Andrews contributed to this report.