PORTLAND — Former Auburn music teacher James Raymond Jr. was sentenced Thursday to serve 12 years in federal prison for sex-related crimes that involved twice driving an 11-year-old and her younger sister to an amusement park in New Hampshire three years ago.

After prison, Raymond, 29, will be on supervised release the rest of his life. Prosecutors called for a sentence of 17½ years in prison followed by 10 years of supervision. Raymond’s lawyer was seeking 10 years in prison and five years of supervised release.

The federal mandatory minimum guidelines call for at least 10 years in prison and five years of supervised release; the maximum is life in prison.

Through his attorney and his mother, Raymond promised Thursday to appeal both his conviction and the sentence. He maintained his innocence.

Before the judge handed down his sentence, Raymond, dressed in an orange jail suit, stood and read from a yellow sheet of paper.

He apologized to the victim, saying he was sorry that she had to endure the trial.

He said he planned to pursue higher college degrees during his time in prison.

“After all of this, I have no desire to teach again,” he said. “I have no desire to work with children ever again.”

During his probation following convictions on state charges of sexual touching and assault involving children, he said wherever he went, including church, he avoided contact with children.

“I don’t want any more accusations to be made,” he said.

In a seeming contradiction to his professed innocence, Raymond also told the judge that he needed more sex-offender treatment than what he got after his state conviction and would be seeking such therapy in federal prison.

U.S. District Court Justice D. Brock Hornby, who found Raymond guilty at a bench trial in May on two counts of transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, predicted Thursday that his sentence would satisfy no one.

“There’s no happy outcome to this,” he said.

His supporters would think the sentence was too strict; his detractors, too lenient.

Raymond was in a supervisory position of trust and by committing his crimes, he “caused a loss of trust to young girls,” Hornby said. He also arranged for the circumstances that led to the criminal conduct.

The judge said Raymond’s testimony at trial “was simply not credible” and concluded that Raymond had perjured himself.

Despite testimonials from friends, colleagues and students in the community where Raymond taught, he was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Raymond’s apology to the victim and his request for treatment marked the “beginning of what might be a long road back,” Hornby said.

He said his sentence would guarantee that Raymond would be behind bars at least until his victim is an adult. One condition of his supervised release is never to have contact with the victim or her family.

Hornby sentenced Raymond to 12 years on each of the two convictions, to be served at the same time.

After his release from prison, Raymond’s computer activity would have to be restricted and monitored for child pornography, Hornby said. Raymond also would have to submit to searches of his home if his supervisor suspects Raymond has pornographic materials.

Raymond will have to register as a sex offender, participate in sex-offender treatment programs and undergo lie detector tests wherever he lives, as ordered by his supervisor.

As she left the courthouse after the sentencing, Raymond’s mother, Donna Elcewicz, said she believed her son was innocent.

She said Raymond passed two lie detector tests, but those results were blocked from trial by prosecutors. He was refused a third test, she said.

“But nobody wants to print that. They just want to print all the bad stuff,” she said.

“I just pray in the appeal, it will be … turned over because I don’t believe he’s guilty,” she said.

“I hope this girl comes to her senses and admits the truth because none of this s— happened,” Elcewicz said.

She said the victim, in her letter to the court, said she prayed her actions would protect other young women from him.

“Not that it protected her, not that she felt bad. She never even talked to her counselor about it. It didn’t even bother her,” Elcewicz said.

A registered nurse, Elcewicz told the judge Thursday that Raymond suffered a brain-stem inflammation as a baby. At 18 months, he was given glasses so that he could see clearly. He started playing music at age 7, against his father’s wishes. His grandmother taught him piano. He worked a paper route to save up for a trumpet.

Of all her children, “He was always the responsible one,” she said. He never complained, even when he lost his job after he was charged in state court three years ago and convicted in 2008. Elcewicz said she has filed for bankruptcy for him and is selling his house to help pay his debts, including legal fees.

“I’m very proud of my son, how he’s been the last three years because of all of this,” she said. “He’s made some poor choices, but I don’t believe he deserves 10 years,” she said before the judge handed down his sentence.

“I think 10 years is cruel and unusual punishment,” she said, adding that convicted rapists are sentenced to half of that time.

Neither the victim in the federal case nor the victims in the state case two years ago spoke in court Thursday.

One of Raymond’s former students, as well as her father, told the judge Raymond was inspirational and always professional. They believed in his innocence. Another woman called the case a “modern-day crucible.”

Raymond’s lawyer, Richard Hartley of Bangor, said he planned to review the trial transcript for grounds for appeal. Raymond hopes to be vindicated of any and all wrongdoing in the end, Hartley said.

Raymond took an 11-year-old former student and her 9-year-old sister from their home to his, then drove them to Canobie Lake Park in Salem, N.H., in July 2007 and again a month later. The student also was a member of the school chorus that Raymond directed.

On the July trip, Raymond touched the girl’s buttocks through her bathing suit at least three times. Hornby concluded Raymond’s actions were done for sexual gratification. He touched her buttocks again during an August trip, Hornby wrote in his verdict.

Other students testified that Raymond acted inappropriately with the victim on a bus during a school trip to the park.

During an interview with an Auburn police detective, Raymond made statements about his interest in young girls and urges to touch their buttocks. He later claimed his admissions were coerced. Raymond told federal agents who questioned him that he was interested in young girls, but testified at his trial that he was merely telling them what he thought they wanted to hear. Hornby said Raymond had reason to lie on the witness stand because his career and freedom were at stake.

In 2008, Raymond was tried and convicted in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn on five charges: two counts of unlawful sexual touching and three counts of assault. The three girls involved in that case were music students of his at the time of the incidents in 2005 and the fall of 2007.

One girl was a first-grader at East Auburn Community School, another was a second-grader at Park Avenue Elementary School. The third victim was a fifth-grader at Webster Intermediate School.

Those convictions were allowed as evidence at the federal trial.

During the period of those crimes, Raymond was a teacher at Park Avenue and East Auburn elementary schools. He also was an assistant marching band instructor at Leavitt Area High School in Turner, founder of the Central Maine Children’s Theater Project and an instructor for the Central Maine Children’s Chorus.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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