Alleged sex offender has record in Maine

A local man facing three felony and two misdemeanor charges for alleged sexual assaults on two juvenile females, one in the fall of 2001 and another in the summer of 2007, pled guilty to sexual offenses in Maine in 1988.

James A. Martin, 46, 735 North Main Street, Apartment 2 was first charged with two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, a class A felony, as well as one count of sexual assault and one count of indecent exposure, both class A misdemeanors, stemming from an alleged assault on a 13-year-old girl in Ahern State Park last summer. Following reports of his arrest, a woman now living in Auburn, Maine, notified police that Martin had molested her in 2001, when she was 14 and living in Laconia. Last week Martin was further charged with felonious sexual assault, a class B felony, and arraigned on all charges in Laconia District Court, where Judge David Huot set bail at $50,000 cash or corporate surety.

According to the affidavit in support of cash bail prepared by Det. Tom Swett, who headed the investigation, Martin was convicted on two counts of unlawful sexual contact and one count of gross sexual contact in Maine in May, 1988 and sentenced to five years in prison and six years of probation. Martin told police that the crimes involved the six-year-old daughter of his girlfriend at the time.

Martin, who is being held in Belknap County Jail in lieu of bail, is scheduled to appear for a probable cause hearing on the felony charges in Laconia District Court on Tuesday, Jan. 22 and to be tried on the misdemeanors in Laconia District Court on Tuesday, Feb. 19.