LEWISTON – There was an uproar in Lewiston in 1997 when convicted kidnapper Norm Dickinson tried to move to the city.

Residents publicly expressed their anger and fear. City leaders fought the prison system to keep Dickinson out. The police chief fumed that Lewiston was being used as a “dumping ground.”

The outcry thwarted Dickinson’s plans for freedom. He was ordered to remain in prison after refusing to come to Lewiston to face angry residents.

Three years later, after more prison time, the 36-year-old finally came to Lewiston and moved to an apartment on Drew Street. Police dutifully notified neighbors and waited for fallout.

Four days later, Dickinson was accused of exposing himself to three women while walking down the road. He was sent back to prison.

Dickinson, who has not spent more than a few months free since he was a juvenile, is scheduled to be released again in February.

It remains unclear where he will go.

In 1990, Dickinson was convicted of kidnapping and robbing two women near the Maine Mall in South Portland the year before. Prosecutors said Dickinson was fulfilling a sexual fantasy at the time, although his plans were thwarted before any sexual contact was made.

According to court records, Dickinson was carrying a toy gun when he approached the women. He also claimed to be an undercover officer.

Investigators said Dickinson ordered one of the women to drive him to a secluded area a short distance away.

He told the woman he was going to sexually assault her but that she would be OK if she complied.

The woman escaped and Dickinson was later caught, tried and convicted.

In late 1996, he was about to be released from prison after serving seven years of a 20-year sentence.

Court officials ordered that he be held under house arrest and Dickinson reacted by writing a letter to a Superior Court justice, describing himself as a “bomb.”

“I feel your honor is setting me up for failure,” Dickinson wrote to the judge. “I feel your restricting me to my home for five years is going to be the spark that sets the bomb off.”

Before Dickinson could be released, police alerted residents in Portland of the move through the news media. After that, Dickinson was sent to a pre-release center in Bangor for three months.

In April 1997, court officials planned to set up Dickinson in an apartment on Pine Street in Lewiston after his release from the pre-release center. That decision caused Lewiston city officials, including then-Police Chief Michael Kelly, to react.

“He says he feels sorry for the people he’s going to hurt,” Kelly said at the time. “Now he’s going to be our problem. Why is Lewiston a dumping ground? Why?”

Public hearings were held in which residents spouted their fears about Dickinson’s possible presence in the downtown area.

Mothers said they would be afraid to let their children play outside. Several described themselves as “terrified.”

Dickinson’s probation was revoked after he refused housing in Lewiston. He was sentenced to serve his remaining three years in prison.

Three different attempts to place Dickinson in the community since have failed.

Where Dickinson might settle if he is freed in February remains unknown. Correctional officials say his placement partially depends on the availability of mental health treatment and access to his probation officers.

Dickinson, meanwhile, has said his description of himself as a bomb has been exaggerated and misunderstood. He meant it, Dickinson said, as a reference to the lack of mental health treatment in the Maine correctional system.

“I know the time bomb” description I gave of myself scares people,” he wrote. “I gave this type of description to describe the people that are being turned into time bombs’ at the Supermax prison. … I just wanted a chance to try to live a normal life in society with other people.

Dickinson’s convictions in 1989:

• Two counts of robbery.

• Two counts of kidnapping.

• One count of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

• Two counts of theft.

• One count of impersonating a public servant.