LEWISTON – Robert Baird showed up for his first interview in baggy jeans, an untucked shirt and a scraggly mustache.

A 58-year-old grandfather with gray hair and bad knees, he was the last person Julie and Rick Johnson had in mind when they placed a help-wanted ad in July 2002 looking for a nanny for their two children.

But the Lewiston couple had few options.

They got about 30 calls in response to their ad. Most ended soon after they explained that they could only afford $250 a week. Those still interested were inexperienced college students looking for summer work.

The couple needed someone full time for at least six months while Rick, a soldier in the Navy, was deployed to Italy.

With only weeks before Rick was scheduled to leave, he and Julie considered other possibilities. Maybe they would settle for one of the college kids. Or maybe Julie would cut her hours.

Then Baird called.

He told the couple he was an active member of his church with a long list of references and certificates in CPR and first aid. He told them he had worked many places during his life, including a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he cared for young children.

That gut feeling’

It was more than two years before the couple learned that Baird hadn’t been an employee at the mental hospital. He was a patient sent there in the late 1980s after a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of raping a young boy.

Rick Johnson says he always had a gut feeling about Baird.

But he never imagined the decision to go against his intuition would come with such dire consequences: a lengthy police investigation, a criminal trial and an experience that has undoubtedly altered his daughter’s life forever.

“I was trying to be open-minded,” Rick said. “There were a bunch of reasons to hire him and only one not to: He was an old man.”

When Baird showed up for his first interview, the couple were immediately put off by his appearance.

But their children, 7-year-old Darcy and 3-year-old Ryan, didn’t seem to mind.

“Both of the kids just radiated to him,” Julie Johnson said.

During the half-hour interview, Ryan showed Baird his favorite Batman and Spiderman figures, and Darcy drew him a picture of dogs and flowers.

“They took to him right away,” Rick said. “It was obvious that they liked him.”

Still reluctant, the couple decided not to make any decisions before checking Baird’s references. Rick also asked his old friends from the Navy to do a criminal background check.

Nothing came up – not the charge in 1984 of sexually assaulting a young relative, not the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in 1987 to a charge of raping his girlfriend’s son and not his brief stay in the mental hospital.

Too good to be true’

During a second interview, Baird told the couple he would take the kids to the lake and to his sister’s pool in New Gloucester. And he would do it all for $200 a week.

“He was absolutely perfect,” Julie said.

Baird started working for the family in late July while Rick was still home. He showed up every morning with piles of books to read to the kids, and he often stayed until they went to bed.

After Rick left for Italy in August 2002, Julie, who was struggling at the time with an addiction to prescription painkillers, quickly got used to coming home to a spotless house, piles of clean laundry and, often, a hot meal on the table.

Knowing that Baird lived alone in a boarding house in Lewiston, Julie usually invited him to eat. Many nights, Baird ended up staying after the kids went to bed so Julie could go out with her friends.

Julie once told her co-workers, “This guy is too good to be true.”

According to a top detective for the Lewiston Police Department, that is often a crucial sign.

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Detective Sgt. James Minkowsky, who has spent 15 years investigating cases of physical and sexual abuse against children.

Signs of trouble

Looking back, Julie remembers seeing changes in her daughter. Once vibrant and outgoing, Darcy started spending more time in her room.

Julie also noticed changes in her son. He seemed angry and agitated, especially when Baird was around. At the time, Julie wasn’t too concerned. She assumed both children were simply going through phases.

Now, it all makes sense.

The first significant sign of trouble came in October 2002, about three months after Baird started working for the family. Darcy told Julie that “Papa Bob” had given her a bath.

“I called him right away and said, That is not one of your job duties. Do it again and you’re fired,'” Julie said.

Baird immediately apologized. He convinced Julie that he was only trying to teach the girl about good hygiene and he promised to never do it again.

“A lot of pedophiles are very patient,” said Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman, who prosecutes sex-abuse cases for the state. “They build trust over a long period of time.”

Four months went by. Julie assumed Baird had heeded her warning until one night in February 2003 when she told Darcy it was time to take a bath.

“I don’t need to,” the girl told her mom, “Papa Bob cleans me every day.”

Julie pressed her daughter for more details. Darcy told her mother that Baird routinely took her to her bedroom and told her to lie on her bed so he could clean her “privates.”

Julie put her daughter to bed that night, then immediately notified Rick, who called the police and booked a flight home. The couple assumed Baird would be arrested immediately and kept in jail until his trial.

Not like TV

But, as is typical with most investigations involving child sexual abuse, the detectives needed time to collect evidence and coax a confession from Baird.

“It isn’t like TV where in an hour’s time, they go from the initial investigation to the conclusion of the trial,” Minkowsky said. “Just because a person tells us it happened, it doesn’t mean we can go out and arrest whoever we want. We need to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Many cases never get prosecuted because they lack physical evidence, the suspect denies the allegations or the victim is too afraid to testify. If it hadn’t been for Darcy Johnson, that could have easily happened with Baird’s case, Cashman said.

Police did get Baird to admit on videotape that he became sexually aroused when cleaning the girl. However, Maine law bars prosecutors from presenting a confession at a trial unless they have a victim who is willing to testify or another witness to the crime.

In another case, Cashman said, she was forced to dismiss a charge even though the suspect had confessed. The confession was useless because the only witness was the 18-month-old victim who was too young to take the stand.

Too far and too often’

At first, Darcy Johnson was angry with her parents for firing Baird. She slammed doors and locked herself in her bedroom for hours.

“She looked at me once and said, I hate you, Mommy. You are just jealous of the love we shared for each other,'” Julie said.

Even though Baird had been warned by police to stay away from the family, he sent them a letter in April 2003.

“I will admit to you and God I probably did go too far and too often, but I was and I am addicted to her giggle and laugh. I would cut off any part of my body to hear it again,” he wrote.

That letter and other attempts by Baird to contact the family led police to arrest Baird.

At the time, no one knew of his past. Since individual states are not required to report criminal charges to a national database, investigators didn’t know about his history in Massachusetts. Unlike Maine, Massachusetts does not contribute to the database.

Baird was let go on $2,500 bail. He remained free for nearly a year.

Guilty

In the months leading up to Baird’s trial, prosecutors attempted to work out a plea deal while a therapist prepared Darcy for the worst-case scenario: taking the stand.

The therapist told the girl she was a hero. He convinced her that she would help Papa Bob by telling the judge what he did to her.

Baird was offered two plea agreements, one that would land him in prison for a year and another that would get him nine months in the county jail.

In the end, he rejected both deals and chose a trial before a judge.

Baird, who is at the Maine State Prison in Warren, claims he rejected the deals because he is innocent. He maintains that he was simply cleaning the young girl.

“If I was guilty as they made out I am, why wouldn’t I plead guilty and take the 9-month plea bargain and have been done with it by now?” he wrote in a letter to the Sun Journal.

Baird’s trial was held on March 25, 2004.

While Julie and Rick waited in a room outside the courtroom, Darcy raised her right hand and promised to tell the truth.

At the end of the day, Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II found Baird guilty of eight counts of unlawful sexual contact. Three months later, after a thorough pre-sentencing investigation uncovered Baird’s history in Massachusetts, the same judge sentenced him to eight years in prison, followed by four years of probation.

Baird has filed an appeal with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. It could be months before a ruling is issued.

In the meantime, both Johnson children remain in counseling, their parents said.

When Darcy Johnson found out that Baird was sent to prison, she immediately did the math. She figured out that she would be 18 when he gets out.

“Big enough,” she told her mother, “to kick him in the knees if he ever goes near me again.”

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