By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A Pierce Street man was behind bars Tuesday, charged in a Monday morning sex assault police say was interrupted by a school bus driver.

Glen Eric Lawson, 43, of 110 Pierce St., was charged with gross sexual assault and failing to register as a convicted sex offender.

Lawson is accused of forcing an Ash Street woman to perform oral sex on him after following her to her apartment at about 7:30 a.m. Monday.

According to a police affidavit, Lawson followed the 25-year-old woman home after she had given him directions to another address. At the time, the woman was walking home from a nearby store, police said.

According to the affidavit, Lawson began propositioning the woman minutes after they met on the street. The woman told Lawson that she was married and had children and that she needed to go home to get her daughter ready for school, according to the court document.

The woman left Lawson on the street and went to her apartment building, police said. But after walking into a covered porch outside her home, she discovered she had forgotten her keys.

When the woman tried to walk out of the porch to use a different door, she encountered Lawson, according to the affidavit. It was then that Lawson grabbed the woman and forced her to perform the sex act, police said.

Police said a school bus that pulled up in the area may have prevented the attack from continuing.

“After about 10-15 minutes, (the victim) heard a horn blow and discovered that the school bus parked briefly in front of her house and honked the horn in order to announce its presence,” Detective Marc Robitaille wrote in the affidavit. “The horn distracted Lawson, which enabled (the victim) to exit the covered porch on the Ash Street side.”

Police said the woman ran to another doorway and entered her home that way. Moments later, her husband arrived, and she told him about the attack.

According to the affidavit, the woman’s husband ran outside and found Lawson still milling around the area. The husband called 911 and kept Lawson at the scene until police arrived, according to the court document.

Later, while being interviewed by police, Lawson admitted to speaking with the woman on Ash Street, but denied having any sexual contact with her, according to the affidavit.

Police said the victim did not know Lawson.

When investigators tracked down the bus driver who had stopped on Ash Street, she could only say that two people were inside the covered porch and that one of them appeared to be a man. The bus driver told police it appeared as though the pair were attempting to open a door to the home.

Lawson was arrested and taken to the Androscoggin County Jail. In Lewiston, he has a criminal history of assaults, terrorizing, drug possession and carrying a concealed weapon dating back to May, police said.

According to court records, Lawson is registered as a sex offender in Massachusetts. Details about Lawson’s conviction in that state were not available Tuesday. However, once he moved to Maine, he was required to register as a sex offender with state officials. Police said he had not done so.

Lawson is expected to make an initial court appearance today.

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