Eliot Cutler released from jail following charge of sixth probation violation
Lawyer says his client is getting ‘special bad treatment when it comes to all of these alleged violations’
June 17, 2026
By Tricia Thomas
MACHIAS—Former Maine gubernatorial candidate and convicted sex offender Eliot Cutler, who was arrested and jailed for allegedly violating his probation for a sixth time since last fall, was released from jail on June 16. A continued hearing on whether his probation should be revoked and he should be jailed for those violations has been scheduled for September 18.
In announcing his decision to set Cutler free, Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson said that there was not enough evidence to continue holding the 79-year-old, who had been detained at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor since his arrest on June 11.
Cutler, who is serving parole for a 2023 conviction of possessing child pornography, was arrested after allegedly refusing to sign a contract for court-ordered Specialized Problematic Sexual Behavior (PSB) treatment that would have restricted his use of the internet, among other conditions.
Cutler, a former attorney, had been free on bail since May 22, following a February arrest for allegedly violating his probation by possessing pornography. That arrest, at a South Portland hotel, was Cutler’s third since last September.
Hancock County district attorney Bob Granger and Cutler’s probation officers, Sam Payson and Scott Lewis, are asking the court to revoke Cutler’s probation. If they are successful, Cutler could spend the remaining three-plus years left on his six-year probation in jail.
Cutler and his attorney, Walter McKee of McKee Morgan in Augusta, have maintained during recent court proceedings that the Brooklin resident needs to use the internet to pay bills and manage his finances, access email, manage HVAC and other operating systems in his coastal home, and participate in voluntary remote counseling sessions. On June 1, Larson ruled as part of a continued probation revocation hearing that Cutler could use the internet during weekday business hours, as long as his wife or brother was with him and he notified his probation officer beforehand.
According to court documents, the treatment contract that Cutler refused to sign was required for him to participate in the PSB program. Because he didn’t sign it, he was discharged, wrote counselor William Walsh, Jr., LCPC, of Northern Lighthouse in Bangor.
“I was a bit surprised to see that he’d been arrested for not participating in the program because he wouldn’t sign this agreement. So, I guess I don’t feel comfortable leaving that condition in there until this entire matter is resolved.”
“I explained that once I had a copy of your updated probation conditions, we would write a safety plan outlining your permitted uses of the internet as permitted by the Court. At that time, you stated that you would not sign anything that was more restrictive than the Court conditions,” Walsh stated in a June 11 letter to Cutler.
Before releasing Cutler on June 16, Larson, who serves as a Superior Court judge in both Hancock and Washington counties, said that Cutler’s participation in PSB counseling would not be required while he awaits a continued bail revocation hearing. The June 16 court proceeding was held in Machias.
“I was a bit surprised to see that he’d been arrested for not participating in the program because he wouldn’t sign this agreement. So, I guess I don’t feel comfortable leaving that condition in there until this entire matter is resolved,” Larson said. “So, as of right now, the Court is not going to include that condition in the bail because I think it’s subject to abuse.”
“That probation condition was removed completely,” McKee confirmed during a telephone interview following Cutler’s release. “Whether it will be added back on in September is anyone’s guess.”
McKee also confirmed that Cutler still can use the internet during weekdays with supervision, and that third-party monitoring of his internet usage, required when his probation first began in 2024, was still happening.
“He’s being actively monitored through a third-party monitoring service that reports any violations,” McKee said.
“Just to be clear, in terms of [the] internet as an issue [and] in terms of actual violations that he admitted to, there’s a single incident in January of 2026, where he accessed the internet and viewed one video that was in violation. There was no prior internet violation. There was one reference about [a violation] in September, but that was dismissed,” McKee added.
McKee also said, in a written statement released to the press, that his client acted “correctly” when refusing to sign that PSB treatment contract.
“The Motion to Revoke probation said that Eliot was somehow wrong to refuse to sign an agreement that was directly contrary to the court’s specific order on this very issue. He correctly said ‘no, I am not signing that’, and then, incredibly, he was arrested,” McKee stated.
“The treatment provider obviously never bothered to follow up and check the court record that had already addressed the issue. Justice Larson found today that the State could not even show probable cause—the lowest standard in the law—for a probation violation. And he upbraided the probation office for arresting Eliot in the first place,” McKee continued. “We hear, time and again, how Eliot is supposedly getting special treatment. He sure is getting special treatment—special bad treatment when it comes to all of these alleged violations.”
Granger was unavailable for comment on the case.
“Probation has taken the position that Mr. Cutler has done nothing but attempt to circumvent the conditions of his probation,” Granger told the court at a hearing on April 8.
Cutler’s use of the internet has been at the center of his 2023 child pornography conviction and a majority of his alleged probation violations.
In May 2023, Cutler pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing sexually explicit material of a minor under the age of 12, and was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was released in January 2024 for good behavior, after serving seven months. When released, Cutler was required to register as a sex offender and was given six years of probation. Under the terms of that probation, Cutler was not allowed to view sexually explicit materials, among other prohibitions.
According to court documents, Cutler was charged last October with violating his probation by allegedly using an unmonitored electronic device to access pornographic materials in September and October, and for allegedly failing to notify his probation officer that he had done so. Cutler posted $1,000 in bail and was released on December 16.
In January, Cutler was charged with violating his probation a second time by allegedly accessing pornographic materials in Brooklin on December 28 and January 2. Cutler was released from jail on January 14, after posting $10,000 in bail and agreeing to stricter terms for his continued probation, including attendance at court-mandated “problematic specialized treatment” counseling sessions. He also was banned from using the internet.
Less than a month later, Cutler was arrested in South Portland for alleged possession of pornographic DVDs—items he is barred from having under the terms of his probation. According to the police report, Cutler told state police, who said they were at the hotel on other business when they came upon him, that he “can’t help himself,” and that he has “had this problem for 65 years.” Cutler was jailed in Cumberland County on the charges, and was later transferred to Hancock County Jail.
On February 20, Granger and Cutler’s probation officer, Sam Payson, asked the court to convert Cutler’s remaining probation to jail time “for the protection of the community” after an alleged fourth probation violation. This time, Cutler was charged with violating probation because he was “unsatisfactorily discharged” from his court-mandated counseling sessions due to a failure to show up for them. Cutler’s attorney, Walter McKee, has argued that his client was a no-show at those sessions because he was being held in Cumberland County Jail.
On April 21, court documents show that Cutler was charged with a fifth violation for “maintaining encrypted files upon or within a computer or account under your control without written permission from probation parole,” a condition of his probation. He also was charged with “failing to disclose passwords or keys used to access electronic devices” when he gave inaccurate passwords to investigators charged with examining his devices.
On May 22, Larson accepted Cutler’s admissions of guilt to charges contained in three of the state’s motions to revoke probation, and dismissed a fourth motion before hearing witness testimony on a fifth. That hearing was continued to June 1.
On June 1, Larson announced that Cutler had supplied additional passwords for his devices since returning home, and granted a continuance to allow investigators time to examine them.
“It has been brought to my attention that a motion to continue has been filed by the state since Mr. Cutler has been released on bail and was able to locate his passwords, particularly the password to the Apple computer, and the state now wants to…search that computer before they go on,” Larson said.
Larson ended the brief, 20-minute hearing on June 1 by granting Cutler use of the internet while he awaits a decision on whether his probation should be revoked.
“I’m going to order that [1] he have internet access pending this next hearing. It’s going to be monitored by his wife, Melanie Cutler, or his brother, Josh Cutler. [2] that it’s going to be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. [3] that he will also contact his probation officer when that internet access will be taking place, so that the probation officer will be aware that there is internet access taking place,” Larson said.
“I don’t know how this will impact his program for treatment that has been ordered,” Larson also said on June 1.
Cutler’s hearing on September 18 will begin at 9 a.m. at the Hancock County Courthouse.
