FARMINGTON – A Madison man and former student of University of Maine at Farmington was indicted by the Franklin County grand jury Thursday on a felony charge of unlawful sexual contact.
Ashton Heald, 19 of Madison, was indicted on one count of unlawful sexual contact, a Class C felony. The charge relates to a University of Maine at Farmington campus police investigation into allegations made by an individual when both the complainant and Heald were students at UMF.
According information previously provided by UMF Campus Police Chief Brock Caton, the incident was first reported to police in April by the complainant. Heald and the complainant were both UMF students at the time of the alleged incident, which reportedly occurred on campus. As a result, Sgt. Wayne Drake began an investigation.
Drake and the UMF campus police worked with Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Services to obtain a protection order and prohibit Heald from the university.
After Drake completed his investigation, Caton said, the case was reviewed by the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office. Following that, Drake coordinated with Heald’s attorney and the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office to have Heald turn himself in on the felony charge. That arrest occurred without incident on June 28 at FCDC; Heald was later released on $250 cash bail.
Caton noted that Heald had been issued a criminal trespass warning that prohibits him from returning to UMF.
$250 cash bail? For sexual assault?
The Bulldog likes to put the photograph of innocent people in their headlines…How about a photograph of the person who runs the Bulldog ? Stop putting photographs of people who have been charged with a crime until they are convicted..We don’t need this kind of media reporting in our community…
@The Lions Road, isn’t an indictment a charge?
*Roar
… also I am with you Old Maineac $250 bail?!
Keep up the good reporting Bulldog.
Roars- Maybe you haven’t looked closely, but the photos of the Bulldog owners have been in the Bulldog- when they did something great within the community. This guy got his photo in for something not-so-great… you can tell by the mugshot format. He’s been arrested on a felony charge- don’t we usually see national level criminals who are being arrested on felony charges BEFORE they’ve been convicted? Do you protest each of those images, as well?
A mug shot doesn’t mean a person is guilty… neither does a charge whether it’s a felony or not! I think the point is that by posting people’s pictures before they are convicted of a crime isn’t right because it could cause harm for these individuals lives with out knowing if they even did anything wrong. What happens if someone is posted… effects their job… effects their family… and then come to find out they didn’t do it? Just saying it’s bad reporting to effect someone’s life negatively until they are convicted. But that’s just a decent persons point of view. Isn’t there anything better to report about then all these mugshots lately?
All these mugshots lately are because they were all indicted lately.
It’s pretty serious when you get indicted by a Grand Jury..They have concrete evidence on you that a crime was committed.
The English language is what it is. It ‘affects’ jobs and it ‘affects’ families. Misuse of it ‘affects’ someone negatively on a daily basis.
@captain…. planet or captain grammar? I have to laugh that out of all your reading that’s your focus and concern… but it seems to be common that your topics of debate are correcting others on their minor inaccuracies or misunderstandings… I feel the point of the post and what and being said is a much more important focal point then the spelling mistakes. But to each their own!