Former PI referee
sentenced for sexually exploiting students
CARIBOU, Maine — A former high school basketball referee will spend 17 months in prison after being found guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor and indecent conduct.
Andrew Legassie, 23, of Presque Isle, was accused of using Facebook to send sexually explicit photos of himself to high school students he met while refereeing games, according to the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department.
He was arrested in February 2014 and found guilty last month on 10 counts during a bench trial before Justice E. Allen Hunter in Caribou superior court.
Aroostook County Sheriff Darrell Crandall said April 5 that Legassie would send Facebook requests to students he encountered at games, and then he engaged them in increasingly inappropriate chat conversations on the social media website that would escalate to sending them sexual photos. At one point, Legassie sent photos to more than one juvenile “of himself performing sexual acts,” according to Crandall.
He also requested that the girls reciprocate with images of their own, and some females did, the sheriff said.
At the time of his arrest, law enforcement personnel requested anyone who may have been victimized by Legassie come forward.
“Many did come forward,” Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins said in a statement released in July 2014 following Legassie’s indictment. “The victims were from one end of Aroostook County to the other.”
Legassie was found guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor, four counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted sexual abuse of a minor and four counts of indecent conduct.
Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney James Mitchell said last week that all of the victims were age 16 or under but were not in the courtroom during sentencing.
Mitchell said he would have liked to see Legassie serve at least three years in prison.
Legassie’s prison sentence was stayed until April 16 and he remains free on $500 cash bail, according to information provided by the Aroostook County Superior Court in Caribou.
When he gets out, Legassie will be on probation for three years and will be required to register as a lifetime sex offender on the Maine Sex Offenders Registry.
During probation he won’t be allowed any contact with his victims or with females under age 18 except for family members. He also will be barred from the premises of public or private elementary junior or high schools.
Legassie won’t be allowed to consume or possess drugs or alcohol and won’t be allowed to use any electronic device to access the Internet, except for incidences of employment or education.
Crandall said that the case was “very disturbing” in that an individual who turned out to be a sex offender was “placed in a situation to have contact with students.”
“It is the worst kind of victimization,” he said. “I hope the message that is received by parents and potential victims is to be aware of your activities and those of your child’s online, and for schools to be aware of their students’ activities online.”
