RUMFORD – The case of a horse rancher here accused of sexually harassing a teenage girl he employed last year will be one of several heard next week by the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Last month, commission chief investigator Barbara Lelli determined there are reasonable grounds to believe that Stephen A. Carter, 56, of Andover Road, subjected the girl to unlawful sexual harassment, according to Lelli’s seven-page report.

Lelli recommended that the commission agree with her finding and attempt to resolve the matter between Carter and the victim, who was 14 and 15 years old at the time she worked for Carter. She referred to the girl as Jane Doe.

The commission will hear and discuss the case after 1 p.m. Monday in the Embassy Room at the Best Western Senator Conference Center at 284 Western Ave. in Augusta.

Reached at his house early Tuesday evening, Carter declined to comment without first conferring with his lawyer in Augusta.

During the investigation, Carter invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and didn’t respond to the allegations of sexual harassment.

According to the report, the girl worked for Carter as a helper before and after school and full-time during the summer from May through Sept. 18, 2006. He has seven horses and paid the teenager $6.25 an hour to care for, feed, water and groom the animals.

The report states that the girl accused Carter of kissing her on the mouth and neck on a daily basis, forcing her to the ground and kissing her multiple times while holding her arms above her head, grabbing her thigh, hand, buttocks and breasts, fingering her crotch through her pants, and reaching up her shirt or down her pants.

The teenager also accused Carter of forcing her to quit other jobs so she could learn more about horses by working for him, punishing her by refusing to let her work if she spent time with a friend, rewarded her with gifts and promised her advanced horse-training opportunities if she agreed to spend time with him and let him kiss and fondle her.

“Mr. Carter’s abuse of (the victim) was ultimately so severe that it not only forced her to resign, it also caused her to seek professional mental health assistance,” Lelli said in the report.

The report also includes information from Rumford police Detective Lt. Mark Cayer’s investigation into the matter in mid-September 2006.

According to a statement to Cayer signed by Carter on Sept. 22, 2006, Carter said, “I … admitted wrongdoing, in that during the summer … I made inappropriate passes to (Jane Doe) by feeling her breast and buttocks on several occasions … I don’t believe I did it more than five times.”

Contacted Tuesday afternoon, Cayer said he charged Carter with unlawful sexual touching and referred the matter to the District Attorney’s Office in Paris, but that office declined to prosecute, telling Cayer there wasn’t enough evidence.

“I felt there was adequate probable cause for the charges,” Cayer said.

A secretary at the District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday afternoon that prosecutors there declined to pursue the case in November 2006, but said she would not explain why or discuss any aspect of the case.

Patricia E. Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, said that if the commission adopts Lelli’s recommendation, it’s required by law to try to resolve the matter before filing a lawsuit against Carter in one of Maine’s superior courts.