BRUNSWICK

The Cumberland County District Attorney dropped gross sexual assault charges against two Brunswick men accused by a local teenager of the crimes in woods near Brunswick High School in August 2010.

Darrel Wilson, now 21, and Kemon Harmon, now 20, both of Brunswick, were arrested after a Brunswick teenager reported on Aug. 30, 2010, that two black men offered her a ride to the high school on their bicycles, and then forced her to have sex with them in the woods near Brunswick High School.

The two were indicted in October 2010 for Class A felony gross sexual assault, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

But in plea agreements negotiated in late November and early December 2011, the district attorney dropped those charges, and the two men each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “disorderly conduct, offensive words and gestures,” court documents indicate.

The pleas acknowledge “knowingly accosting, insulting, taunting or challenging (the victim) with offensive, derisive or annoying words, or by gestures or other physical conduct which would in fact have a direct tendency to cause a violent response by an ordinary person in the situation …”

For the Class E crime, Wilson was sentenced to 74 days, the time that he had already served in county jail.

Harmon was sentenced to 110 days in jail.

Harmon, who according to court documents had no previous criminal history, remained in jail after his arrest, when bail was set at $5,000 cash. On Jan. 31, 2011, he was released after bail was reduced to $2,500 secured.

“Mr. Wilson was very clearly innocent of very serious charges that were leveled against him, and that became clearer as time went on,” Portland attorney J. P. DeGrinney, who defended Wilson, said Thursday. “ The story that was given to authorities was flatly just wrong.”

Harmon’s attorney, Charlene Hoffman of Portland, did not return a call for comment on Thursday.

Brunswick Police Detective Sgt. Martin Rinaldi said Thursday that his detectives “did a great job preparing the case,” but he added, “Once the hearings began, it was out of our hands.”

Asked about the outcome of the two cases, Assistant District Attorney Michael Madigan wrote in an email to The Times Record that “the case was, as all cases are, not perfect and subject to questioning. As the criminal process played out, the number of issues that needed to be overcome in order to make the chance of a successful prosecution greater than not, increased until a plea to a lesser offense was agreed upon.”

“ Darrell is an incredibly nice kid, an incredibly talented kid, and I have absolutely no doubt that he did not do anything wrong in this case,” DeGrinney said. “I think that became clear toward the conclusion of the case.”

DeGrinney praised Brunswick detectives for doing “a good job,” and said some investigation into the case “was good and very helpful. Had they let that rule the day, justice would have prevailed quicker than it did.”

bbrogan@timesrecord.com