The Richmond Police Department arrested a man Friday they say violated his probation by hanging around a 12-year-old girl.
Police Chief Scott MacMaster said 20-year-old Zachary Dunning, of 1765 West Alna Road, Alna, was arrested on a probation hold at 2:45 p.m. Friday because he is on probation for sex offenses and allegedly had contact with a 12-year-old girl.
According to the Maine Sex Offender Registry, Dunning was convicted in Wiscasset Superior Court in February of gross sexual assault for engaging in a sexual act with a person younger than 14. He also was convicted in Skowhegan Superior Court on the same charge.
MacMaster said there is a walking path from High Street to the public works department building to the back of the middle school on Main Street — used primarily as a shortcut for students to walk from the residential district to school and back.
MacMaster said Officer Doug Bellevue, who serves as police liaison to Richmond schools, was on his way to the school to investigate an unrelated fighting complaint, and stopped at the public works building to fuel up the cruiser.
As he pulled onto public works property, he spotted Dunning with a 17-year-old and 12-year-old female, and a 17-year-old male, walking from the trail area.
Dunning and one of the juveniles were individuals Bellevue planned to interview for the fighting case, MacMaster said.
When approached, Dunning told Bellevue he’d walked from High Street to the trail and off into the woods to urinate, MacMaster said.
As part of his conditions of probation, Dunning is not to have contact with anyone under age 16 and, as a sex offender, is not supposed to be on school property.
Police continue to investigate whether Dunning was on school property.
Though he has an Alna address, MacMaster said Dunning frequents the Kimball Street area.
“We did a thorough investigation and could substantiate” that Dunning and the 12- year-old girl had a mutual friend who brought them in contact with each other, Mac- Master said.
Police believe the encounter between the two lasted a maximum of two minutes before they left the trail and Bellevue intervened.
MacMaster said the fact that Bellevue works in the schools is what pulled this case together, because he was able to identify the suspect and know the approximate age of the juveniles with him. dmoore@timesrecord.com
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