A judge Wednesday accused convicted porn-addicted, disbarred lawyer Eliot Cutler of lying about how he came across the term “strip tease” during a Google search.
Justice Harold Stewart said Cutler’s claim that “strip tease” showed up while he was searching the internet to find how to strip labels from boxes didn’t pass “the straight-face test.”
Stewart ordered that Cutler’s computer activity be limited to checking his bank account – and then only under supervision of a probation officer.
The judge also raised Cutler’s bail to $10,000 from the $1,000 amount set at an earlier hearing.
The disgraced former two-time losing gubernatorial candidate was before the judge for allegedly violating the bail terms from a probation violation.
Cutler had been on probation from a child-porn conviction when he allegedly went on his computer recently to look for sexually-explicit pictures.
He pleaded guilty in 2023 to possessing child porn and served a brief jail term before being put on probation, the terms of which required he not use a computer without supervision.
Cutler is due in court again next month to defend his alleged violations of his parole and bail conditions.
Maybe by then the judge – who Wednesday denied a request from prosecutors to revoke Cutler’s bail – will account for the continuing leniency.
“It looks like he’s supporting the courts one $10,000 bond at a time,” quipped Steve Gotlieb, a former cop and longtime chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at Southern Maine Community College.
Cutler’s serial predilections are now pretty obvious, yet the punishment is seemingly lacking.
First a reduced sentence, then let out early, then subject of alleged probation and bail violations.
If these aren’t “red flags”, what are?
