A Westbrook mechanic who pretended to be an undercover police officer to intimidate prostitutes into having sex with him was sentenced Tuesday to serve more than eight years in prison.
Jason Foster, 36, was convicted after a jury trial in August in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland of eight out of 18 counts against him for crimes against several women who had turned to prostitution to pay for their heroin addictions.
Justice Thomas Warren sentenced Foster to serve 100 months in prison with an additional seven years of prison time suspended during a three-year probation term to begin after his release.
Foster’s pregnant fiancee, Kaylee Smith, testified in his support at the three-hour sentencing hearing as well as his fiancee’s family and his mother, Sue Sudduth. Foster’s current wife, Renae Foster, who is now divorcing him, testified against Foster at the hearing.
Warren imposed the sentence after hearing arguments from Deputy District Attorney Megan Elam that Foster should be sentenced to 15½ years in prison and from Foster’s attorney, Devens Hamlen, that Foster should serve 18 months in prison.
Warren, who presided over Foster’s trial, said the jury’s verdict showed that it did not believe Foster’s testimony in which he denied impersonating a police officer, raping the women and claimed he was just a paying prostitution customer between October 2013 and October 2014 throughout Cumberland County.
“If you go to trial and do not tell the truth on the stand, that can be an aggravating factor,” Warren said, explaining how he reached the sentence he imposed.
The jury convicted Foster of two counts of gross sexual assault, four counts of impersonating a public servant and two counts of engaging a prostitute. It found Foster not guilty of the other 10 charges – five counts of gross sexual assault, four counts of impersonating a public servant and one count of theft by extortion.
Elam said in her sentencing argument that the women who testified against Foster at his trial did so knowing that they would be opening themselves to shame for their drug addiction and for working as prostitutes to fund their addictions.
“The women who came in and testified in this case were heroes, your honor,” Elam told the judge. “They deserve for the law to recognize them as victims.”
Elam called Foster’s current wife as a witness to testify that Foster could present himself one way to people he wants to impress and another way to people he considers beneath him.
Renae Foster told the judge that she was “completely blindsided” when her husband was arrested and discovered since then that he had a secret life seeking out other women and prostitutes online.
Hamlen argued for a lesser sentence, saying Foster had the support of his family and his fiancee’s family who appeared in the courtroom and some of whom wrote letters of support to the judge.
Kaylee Smith, whose baby is due in April, said she supports her fiance fully.
“He’s not the monster everyone portrays him to be,” Kaylee Smith said.
Warren also sentenced Foster to register for life as a sex offender and pay $1,150 in fines and fees.
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