Eliot Cutler has been released from custody again after a judge ruled Tuesday that one of his probation conditions is “subject to abuse.”
The convicted sex offender and two-time Maine gubernatorial candidate was arrested last week after allegedly failing to sign a probation treatment plan document.
Cutler has been in and out of jail over the past several months following multiple accusations that he has violated conditions of his release — many of which he has denied.
According to court documents, the 79-year-old man from Brooklin refused to sign a contract required for participation in problematic sexual behavior treatment.
A probation officer said that decision, as well as Cutler’s discharge from the counseling program, indicates that he “has no intent of following his ordered conditions.”
But during a court hearing in Hancock County on Tuesday morning, Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson agreed to remove the treatment program as a court-ordered requirement until his court proceedings are resolved.
“We hear, time and again, how Eliot is supposedly getting special treatment,” Cutler’s attorney Walter McKee said in a statement Tuesday. “He sure is getting special treatment — special bad treatment when it comes to all of these alleged violations.”
Following his 2023 conviction for possessing thousands of sexually explicit images of children, Cutler was required to participate in problematic sexual behavior treatment as a part of his probation conditions.
Cutler has been accused of six separate probation violations over the past several months.
He admitted during a probation revocation hearing in May that he had an unmonitored phone, accessed a “striptease video” and possessed pornography that led to his February arrest in South Portland.
The alleged violations are due to what Cutler’s probation officer has described as an “inability to refrain from pornography and participate in court ordered (problematic sexual behavior) treatment.”
But requiring Cutler to participate in such treatment could leave him subject to mistreatment, Larson said during Tuesday’s hearing.
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving that condition in there until this entire matter is resolved,” Larson said.
In February, Cutler’s probation officer Sam Payson asked for his probation to be revoked because he wasn’t participating in treatment. But Cutler couldn’t get that treatment because he was being held in jail without bail.
Larson also agreed earlier this month to give Cutler limited access to the internet ahead of his upcoming court hearing.
Hancock County District Attorney Robert Granger did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday morning requesting comment on Cutler’s release.