By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
A Presque Isle man has been charged with sending sexually explicit images of himself to high school students in Aroostook County. “On Feb. 1, sheriff’s deputies received a report from parents and school officials in a northern Aroostook County town that a female juvenile high school student had received sexually explicit images from a former basketball referee, via Facebook. Deputies launched a criminal investigation and gathered evidence that Andrew Legassie, 21, of Presque Isle, had electronically transmitted sexually explicit images to more than one Aroostook County juvenile in the recent past,” said Darrell Crandall, chief deputy sheriff with the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office.
Crandall said Legassie, who until recently officiated at Aroostook basketball games, is accused of sending Facebook friend requests to high school students he encountered on the job.
“He would then engage them in increasingly inappropriate Facebook chat conversations that progressed to him sending pictures of himself performing sexual acts,” Crandall said.
On Friday, Crandall said deputies had gathered enough evidence and charged Legassie with two counts of indecent conduct, a misdemeanor offense.
“He will make an initial appearance in Fort Kent District Court on April 7. Deputies also seized Legassie’s smartphone, from which it is believed the images were transmitted. Deputies will be investigating further to determine if there are additional victims,” he said.
No further information regarding the identity, age or residence of the victims will be released. If more charges are filed against Legassie, that information will be reported, said Crandall.
“This is a particularly disturbing situation, and one that we thankfully do not encounter very often. We commend the parents and school officials for promptly bringing this to our attention so we could intervene, investigate and begin our work to determine if there are other victims. It is important for parents to monitor the activity of their children on social media sites for this reason and many others,” said Crandall.
If you have information on this or other crimes, call the sheriff’s department at 532-3471 or 800-432-7842. You may also contact the ACSO via MyPD, a smartphone application for iPhone and Android.
