PARIS — A Buckfield man already incarcerated for sexually abusing a boy in his care will serve an additional year in prison after pleading guilty to abusing another boy during the same period. 

Gary Michaud was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to a felony count of gross sexual assault in Oxford County Unified Court. The sentence will run concurrent to the five years Michaud has remaining from a prior conviction in Androscoggin County, and he could be incarcerated until 2022. 

An Oxford County prosecutor said Michaud, 60, fostered the boy from 2008 to 2011. During that span, Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Winter said Michaud repeatedly engaged in sexual acts with the boy, who at the time was under the age of 12. 

In 2013, Michaud was ordered to serve seven years of a 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to abusing a different boy in a separate case at his Loring Street home, as well as sexually abusing a family member. 

At the time, both boys lived in the Buckfield home, though the victim in the current case did not come forward to police until 2015. Last summer, an Oxford County grand jury indicted Michaud on two counts of gross sexual assault. 

Those charges carried a maximum prison sentence of 30 years each. Instead, Winter dismissed both charges and Michaud pleaded guilty to a new, third charge that listed the age of the victim as under 14 years instead of 12. 

In the March motion, Michaud’s attorney, Leonard Sharon, argued that the state was effectively trying his client twice for the same conduct and requested the charges be dismissed. While the timeline of the conduct overlapped, Winter wrote that the charges were new. 

In court, Sharon objected that he had an agreement in place with prosecutors that did not include new jail time for his client. Winter, however, argued that the deal was discussed but not accepted. 

Cathy Ring, an advocate for victims at the Oxford Assistant District Attorney’s Office, read a statement by Kari Brown, who fostered the victim after he left Michaud’s home. 

Brown described a troubled, “broken” child who suffered academically and socially and was unable to bond with others. 

Ring also read a statement by the victim, who said he was placed at the age of 8 in the home with Michaud by his mother due to family problems. Michaud slept with him nightly and occasionally engaged in sexual acts. 

He said as a result of his experience, he was unable to trust.

“If I were to have my way, I would like the defendant to earn three years, to make up for what he took from me,” Ring read.  

Winter later said she recommended the sentence be reduced to a year in order to avoid a trial.

Ring continued to read. Michaud, shackled and wearing a jumpsuit, looked down. 

“I’m in this for life,” Ring said, “but I believe three years would be a start.” 

ccrosby@sunjournal.com

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