AUBURN — A former substitute teacher at Leavitt Area High School in Turner, who was released on bail after he was charged with sexually assaulting a student, was found stretched out and unresponsive in a locked car in Bar Harbor.

Seth Prideaux, 22, of Lewiston was charged with violation of bail conditions after allegedly admitting to a police officer he’d been drinking. He pleaded not guilty to that charge in Ellsworth District Court earlier last week and was released on bail, a court clerk said.

Prideaux had been free on $1,500 cash bail after he pleaded not guilty in Androscoggin County Superior Court in March to three counts of gross sexual assault and one count of furnishing liquor to a minor.

A trial on those charges is scheduled for next month.

Conditions of his bail included no possession or use of alcohol, with random searches by police allowed.

A Bar Harbor police officer responded to a report of somebody passed out face-down in a yellow Mercedes-Benz parked in front of a restaurant on the night of July 11, a Saturday, according to court papers. The officer found the car and knocked on the window and yelled for Prideaux to wake up. He didn’t respond, the officer wrote in his report.

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The owner of the car appeared and told the officer that Prideaux was “fine.” Prideaux finally woke up and unlocked the door. The officer said he could smell “the odor of intoxicating beverages” coming from inside, court papers said.

Prideaux told the officer he had been drinking and was tired. He was slurring his words and told the officer his bail conditions prohibited use of alcohol, court papers said.

After giving Prideaux a field sobriety test, the officer arrested him for violation of bail conditions. He was charged and taken to Hancock County Jail.

An assistant district attorney filed a motion in Androscoggin County Superior Court to revoke Prideaux’s bail on the initial charges. No date has been set for a hearing on that motion.

Prideaux taught French as a long-term substitute teacher at SAD 52, which includes Greene, Leeds and Turner. School officials said his name has been removed from the school’s substitute teacher list.

Police responded to his home in late January to find a girl’s parents yelling in Prideaux’s driveway. Her father told police his 15-year-old daughter had admitted to having sex with Prideaux. He reportedly told police he had sex with the girl three times during the two previous days.


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