A witness in the disbarment hearing of Republican district attorney candidate Seth Carey testified Wednesday that Carey had been diagnosed with ADHD and personality disorder, and had been receiving psychotherapy as a condition of his 2016 disciplinary action.

Carey won a two-way primary in June to capture the Republican nomination for the office of district attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

William Nugent, director of Maine Assistance Program for Lawyers and Judges, took the witness stand Wednesday in a five-count complaint against Carey brought by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar.

Nugent said he worked with Carey on several occasions since his 2009 suspension to help the Rumford- and Auburn-based lawyer get back on track professionally.

Nugent said Carey underwent a psychological evaluation, which resulted in several diagnoses. Carey had told Nugent that he had suffered from ADHD in college, but did not like how the prescribed medication affected him, so he stopped that treatment. He told Nugent he was adamant about not wanting to see a psychiatrist or take medication.

Carey met with a clinical psychologist for treatment of his personality disorder, but told Nugent that he did not see the need for further counseling.

At the heart of the board’s complaint against Carey are allegations that he sexually abused a woman who rented a room in his Rumford home, and then proposed paying her to drop her complaint and recant her earlier court testimony after a judge had signed a two-year order of protection from abuse against Carey.

That woman testified Wednesday at the hearing before Justice Thomas Warren, who will decide on the board’s recommendation to either continue Carey’s suspension for two more years or disbar him.

The woman, who had been represented by Carey’s father’s law firm in Rumford on a family matter years earlier and had been represented by Carey himself on two occasions, accused him of sexually harassing her relentlessly while she was a tenant and of sexually abusing her on several occasions at his home, where he stayed on some weekends.

She said she had been in contact with Carey roughly two years after her legal matter with his father’s firm and said they later had “consensual intimate contact.”

She agreed to pay $60 per week for a room in the attic, and said that Carey became increasingly intent on having sexual contact. Once she awoke in her bed to his hands reaching up her legs as she slept on her stomach.

Carey’s lawyer, James Howaniec, disputed her account.

Outside the courtroom, Howaniec said the woman had filed for at least four protection from abuse orders before and had been a defendant in one.

He said he believed she had ulterior motives for filing her request for protection from abuse, which he said she did just two days after Carey had ordered her out of his house.

The hearing is expected to continue Thursday with more cross-examination of the woman. Carey also plans to testify.

Chris Williams can be contacted at:

cwilliams@sunjournal.com