PRESQUE ISLE — A local man who, until recently, worked as a referee at high school basketball games in Aroostook County has been charged with indecent conduct, according to the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department.

Andrew Legassie, 21, is accused of using Facebook to send sexually explicit photos of himself to students he met while refereeing games.

In a statement released Saturday, Chief Deputy Darrell Crandall of the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department wrote that Legassie sent photos “of himself performing sexual acts” to more than one juvenile in the recent past. The sheriff’s department found out about the alleged activity on Feb. 1, when it was contacted by parents and school officials in a northern Aroostook County town that Crandall did not identify.

Police say Legassie would send Facebook requests to students he encountered at games, and then he engaged them in increasingly inappropriate chat conversations on the social media website that would escalate to sending them sexual photos. Crandall did not say how old the students are, other than to say one of them is a juvenile female high school student.

“This is a particularly disturbing situation, and one that we thankfully do not encounter every often,” Crandall wrote in the release. He commended parents and school officials for quickly bringing Legassie’s alleged behavior to the attention of police.

“It is important for parents to monitor the activity of their children on social media sites for this reason and many others,” Crandall said.

Police charged Legassie on Friday with two misdemeanor counts of indecent conduct. They confiscated his smartphone, which they believed he used to transmit the photos, according to Crandall. He added that police are continuing to investigate the case to determine if there may be other children who received inappropriate photos.

Legassie is due to appear in Fort Kent District Court on April 7.

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