WISCASSET (AP) – A former Waldoboro woman who was acquitted last year of murdering her husband but convicted of assaulting him and a police officer is going back to jail.

Amy Dugas was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln County to 44 days in jail for violating probation after she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend in Tennessee. District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau unsuccessfully sought to put her behind bars for 11 months, the maximum.

A Lincoln County jury acquitted Dugas of the 2004 stabbing of her husband, Mark Dugas, with a foot-long kitchen knife. She claimed to have acted in self-defense.

Amy Dugas was later found guilty of assaulting her husband and a sheriff’s deputy in an incident that took place a few months prior to the slaying. The jury in the murder trial was not allowed to hear testimony about that incident.

She was put on probation for two years but later received permission from the state to move to Rockvale, Tenn., to be with her two young children. That’s where she was living when she was arrested in September for domestic assault.

Rushlau said the Tennessee incident was similar to the altercation that led to Mark Dugas’ death. Amy Dugas was under the influence of alcohol both times, and Rushlau urged Judge Joyce Wheeler to impose the full sentence.

Defense lawyer Howard O’Brien argued that his client had successfully begun a new life in Tennessee and should be given another chance.

Giving Dugas credit for time already served, Wheeler ordered her to spend 44 more days in jail before she is released. While on probation through fall of 2007, she is required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous sessions five times a week.

Relatives of Mark Dugas were disappointed that Wheeler did not give a longer sentence.

“She is doing the same thing over and over again. I can’t believe the court didn’t impose the full sentence. The solution is obviously not working,” said Jerry Dugas of Surry, Mark Dugas’ brother.

AP-ES-12-13-06 2108EST

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