Lebanon man pleads not guilty in groping of teen girl

Donald St. Jean (Courtesy photo)

SPRINGVALE, Maine - The Lebanon man arrested in the groping of a 14-year-old Dover, N.H., girl while partying at his house with her and her 16-year-old stepsister this summer waived his arraignment today in Springvale District court while pleading not guilty to all charges connected with the case.

Donald St. Jean, 61, of 62 Upper Middle Road, was arrested on July 26 and charged with unlawful touching, possession of marijuana, serving to minors and possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors.

According to State Police, St. Jean met the 16-year-old on a dating website and the two exchanged texts by cellphone over the next week leading to St. Jean's traveling to Dover to see her in person.

The two met at Dover's Woodman Park, where unexpectedly, the 16-year-old was accompanied by her 14-year-old stepsister.

The three then went to St. Jean's Upper Middle Road mobile home, where they all then went three-wheeling before it is alleged St. Jean and the two girls smoked marijuana and drank alcohol supplied by St. Jean.

State Police say during the course of the afternoon the girls said St. Jean touched them through their clothing on their shoulders, back and legs, and at one point the 14-year-old said his hand brushed against her covered buttocks, leading to the unlawful sexual touching charge.

The girls said "none of that" and he didn't do it again, State Police Sgt. Robert Nichols said shortly after the arrest.

Soon afterward, the two girls asked St. Jean to take them home to Dover, but St. Jean said he couldn't for a while, because he didn't want to drive after drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, Nichols said.

The two girls then went outside to discuss what they should do, then ran away, ending up at nearby Trains Quickstop where they called police and fabricated a different story.

Nichols said when the call came in that Saturday afternoon it was for two teenage girls who said they had been given a drink in Dover that had knocked them out and woken up in a locked house in Lebanon. The girls said they had escaped from the house, ran through the woods and were on a phone at Trains Quickstop. They said the man who drugged them was sitting in his car down the road and they wanted help.

Nichols said after he arrived and interviewed the pair he noticed right away something was wrong, that their details didn't make sense and were somewhat sketchy. Upon questioning them more closely, the two confessed they had made up the story and changed their narrative to what police now believe actually happened, Nichols said.

Nichols also said it appears from the outset both the 16-year-old and St. Jean misrepresented their ages, St. Jean saying he mistakenly entered in 21 instead of 61 on the dating site and she saying she was 20 instead of 16.

St. Jean refused comment when interviewed by The Lebanon Voice several days after his arrest, saying only, "The whole thing was a lot of miscommunication. We'll find out what happens in court."

St. Jean is being represented by defense attorney Mark Lawrence of South Berwick, Maine.

A bench trial is set for next month, but that could change depending on whether the defense files for a jury trial or the case is resolved through a plea deal.