ELLSWORTH (AP) – A Southwest Harbor man was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a Bar Harbor woman was sentenced to seven years for their convictions for drugging and sexually assaulting women two years ago.
Peter Mills, 50, and Stephanie Stark, 45, were sentenced Thursday in Hancock County Superior Court. The pair was convicted in June of multiple charges involving three women who testified that they believed they were given wine laced with drugs before they were assaulted in June 2005.
Stark did not speak at the hearing, but Mills said he was “embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated” by what he’d done, and that he would forever feel remorse. He told the judge that he had started drinking heavily after his wife had left him.
His estranged wife, Michelle Mills, committed suicide last week in the Penobscot County Jail, where she was being held while awaiting trial on charges that she murdered a Southwest Harbor resident in January 2006.
During the trial, two of the victims, who worked with Mills at a Southwest Harbor restaurant, testified that they had gone out to a Bar Harbor restaurant with Mills and Stark. After dinner, the four returned to Mills’ rented home where the assaults took place.
Another woman testified that she was assaulted in her home in Surry two days later.
District Attorney Michael Povich told Justice William Broderick that Mills and Stark needed to be held accountable for their crimes.
“People, when it comes to sex, have dark sides that their friends and relatives might not be aware of,” he said. “We should not forget we have three victims involved here.”
When sentencing the pair, Broderick said Mills and Stark had “inflicted grievous harm” on the victims. But he added that he thought they could be “productive citizens again in the future.”
Attorneys for Mills and Stark said after the hearing that they plan to appeal the sentences. They said the sentences were severe for behavior that was uncharacteristic of their clients.
Povich said he was pleased with the sentences.
“I’ve never seen a case like this,” he said. “These are serial rapists.”
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