A Kennebunk High School teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a student has been indicted by a York County grand jury on 14 counts stemming from an investigation into the relationship, police said Wednesday.
Jill Lamontagne, 29, turned herself in to the Kennebunk Police on Wednesday after she was indicted Tuesday on six counts of gross sexual assault, two counts of unlawful sexual contact and six counts of abuse of a minor, police said.
The boy was under the age of 18 when the alleged sexual contact occurred. He had at one point been a student in Lamontagne’s health class, the school district previously said. She was released on $1,000 bail from the police station, Kennebunk Police said.
Scott Gardner, Lamontagne’s attorney, said his client denies the allegations and plans to plead not-guilty when she is arraigned Dec. 22 in York County Superior Court.
Jill Lamontagne
“The charges are completely untrue, period,” Gardner said. “These allegations arise from a high school rumor which consisted of the fantasies of an emotionally troubled 18-year-old.”
Lamontagne was placed on administrative leave June 12 when the family of a 17-year-old student notified school authorities he had sexual contact with her, RSU 21 Superintendent Katie Hawes said in June.
Shortly after she was placed on leave, Lamontagne filed for family medical leave with the district. Family medical leave laws allow an employee to take 12 weeks of leave during a 12-month period with supporting documentation provided by a doctor.
Lamontagne was still on leave when she tendered her resignation in early September, Hawes said. She did not return to the classroom this school year.
Details of the alleged relationship were disclosed in a protection from abuse order filed in Biddeford District Court by the student’s mother on the boy’s behalf.
The family sought the protection order two days after Lamontagne was placed on leave. It described how a sudden hospitalization for a suspected suicide attempt led the student to reveal the relationship to a family member, a registered nurse and a psychiatrist.
The Press Herald is not naming the student because he is the alleged victim of sexual assault.
A 2013 article published online in the Kennebunk High School newspaper said Lamontagne is a graduate of Kennebunk High School, received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine, and her master’s degree from the University of New England.
In a narrative included in the protection order, the boy was admitted to the emergency room June 9 after taking ibuprofen, Tylenol, cold medicine and warfarin, a blood thinner. A day later, he admitted to his aunt that rumors about him and Lamontagne were true. He had previously denied the relationship.
“He stated it was all true and he was sorry, so sorry for all the bad things he did,” the boy’s mother wrote. “He said he loved her, he said it happened numerous times, in the classroom, at her house, in her car. She told him that she hadn’t had a sexual relationship in two years.”
The boy said Lamontagne performed oral sex on him, and that “other stuff happened.”
He also admitted to his mother that he had told two classmates what happened when he was “wasted,” according to the protection order, but that he shouldn’t have said anything because he didn’t want Lamontagne to go to jail.
He described one day when Lamontagne was attending a workshop after a half-day, and that she instructed him to meet her at her home, which is about 2 miles away, where they “fooled around,” according to the protection order.
Although he has not received the state’s evidence supporting the charges yet, Gardner cited the boy’s apparent suicide attempt and information provided to him from people associated with Lamontagne as evidence of the boy’s past difficulties, and said the allegations are fabrications.
“To make up a story, I think, is a sign I think of some sort of trouble,” Gardner said. “This story is made up.”
Court records indicate Lamontagne is married and has children.
Gardner said Lamontagne was a beloved teacher who connected with a lot of students.
“We see the worst nightmare of any teacher or counselor or person who works with youth manifesting itself,” Gardner said.
A judge in Biddeford agreed to extend for two years the temporary protection from abuse order granted June 14. Lamontagne, through her attorney at the time, agreed to have no contact with the boy or his family, so there was no hearing on the facts.
Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:
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