Court Dismisses Unlawful Sexual Contact Conviction for Former Jehovah’s Witness Elder in Fort Kent, Maine

A jury in Caribou Superior Court convicted Ernest Fyans, a former elder of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Fort Kent, Maine, of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact. One report says the verdict was returned on September 20 and gives the offense classes as a Class A crime and a Class C crime. Two later reports say Fyans was found guilty in September 2023, and they describe unlawful sexual contact as a Class B crime. Both victims were under the age of 12 at the time of the alleged assaults, and their families were members of the Kingdom Hall in Fort Kent. Reports place the alleged offenses in the early 1990s, and one gives the period as 1990 to 1992.

The victims did not come forward until 2002, when one of them was 16 years old, according to one report. The charges stemmed from allegations that Fyans sexually abused two minors. Because the victims were children who could not protect themselves, the case concerned the protection of the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3).

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court later reviewed the convictions. According to reports, the court dismissed one of the two sexual abuse convictions. One report says the court ruled on a Tuesday, and that the ruling upholds the gross sexual assault judgment while nullifying the unlawful sexual contact judgment. Another report describes the dismissed conviction as unlawful sexual contact, a Class B crime, and says it was dismissed because of the statute of limitations applicable at the time of the alleged offenses.

The reports agree on the reason for the dismissal. Judges said the statute of limitations in place at the time should have applied to the lesser charge, so Fyans should not have been convicted of it. The reports differ only in describing the classification of the unlawful sexual contact charge.

The court upheld the gross sexual assault conviction, a Class A felony, according to the reports. One report states that the decision mandates resentencing on that conviction.