Court Dismisses Unlawful Sexual Contact Conviction for Former Maine Jehovah’s Witness Elder

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has dismissed one of two sexual abuse convictions against a former Aroostook County Jehovah’s Witness elder, and asked for him to be resentenced on the other count.

Ernest Fyans, a former elder for Kingdom Hall Jehovah’s Witness in Fort Kent, was found guilty in September 2023 of gross sexual assault, a Class A felony, and unlawful sexual contact, which under Maine law is a Class B crime.

The ruling on Tuesday upholds the assault judgment but nullifies that of unlawful sexual contact. Judges said the statute of limitations that was in place at the time should have applied to the lesser charge, and therefore Fyans should not have been convicted.

The charges stemmed from allegations that, between 1990 and 1992, Fyans sexually abused two children younger than 12 whose parents belonged to the Kingdom Hall in Fort Kent, according to court records.

The victim of the second count, unlawful sexual contact, first reported she had been abused in 2002 when she was 16, according to court records. At that time, a six-year statute of limitations prevented the state from seeking prosecution.

Investigators revisited the allegations in 2020, and Fyans was indicted in 2021. Fyans was sentenced in February 2024 to 20 years in prison on the first count and a concurrent five years in prison for the second count.

Fyans was also among those named in a sex abuse lawsuit filed in January at Caribou District Court. Former Maine resident Alexis Simendinger, who now lives in Pennsylvania, sued the Fort Kent Jehovah’s Witnesses and the New York-based headquarters of the church, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., for negligence and failing to keep her safe from harm.

Source: Read the original report

Source record preserved at time of reporting.