AUBURN — Three area men were indicted this week on charges of strangling women, and because of a change in state law they face longer prison terms, if convicted.

In 2012, the Maine Legislature changed the law to elevate crimes involving strangulation that don’t result in serious bodily harm from assault to aggravated assault. Assault is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to less than a year in jail. Aggravated assault is a Class B felony, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Advocacy groups for victims of domestic violence led the fight to change the law.

Francine Stark, executive director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, said her organization was hearing from victims who said they were strangled, “but no one was being prosecuted with that factor being taken into account.” She said it was clear to her group that “if someone strangles someone, it can kill them. So, it was of great concern.”

Victims told advocates at the group’s eight centers around the state that they feared for their lives, Stark said, “because when someone strangles you, they’re demonstrating both their willingness and ability to kill you.”

Stark said a survey of those domestic violence victims who reported being strangled resulted in “very frightening data that persuaded the Legislature that it was a good idea to” change the law to reflect that factor.

Before the change, the victim would have had to suffer serious bodily injury for their abuser to be charged with a felony.

The law defines strangulation as “the intentional impeding of the breathing or circulation of the blood of another person by applying pressure on the person’s throat or neck.”

Robert Daniel Emond, 34, of 30 Spring St., Sabattus, was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury Tuesday on charges of aggravated assault, domestic violence assault and domestic violence terrorizing.

The aggravated assault charge was ratcheted up to a Class A felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison, because of two domestic violence assault convictions in 2012 and 2015.

Each of the domestic violence charges is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

In Emond’s case, the victim told a Sabattus Police Department officer that early one February morning, Emond “forcefully grabbed (her) by the neck with both hands and strangled (her) to the point of unconsciousness while he restrained her to the couch inside her residence,” according to a police statement in court records.

The victim “told me that she was terrified when this happened and she thought she was going to die,” the officer wrote.

Police photographed the victim’s injuries.

Emond told police the bruising on the victim’s neck was where he “bit her in the heat of passion during an earlier sexual encounter.”

The officer wrote that he noticed the woman’s “face was bright red, with bruising and abrasions on both sides of her neck. I noticed (burst capillaries under the skin) on both cheeks, ears, around the lips which were swollen and opening to (the woman’s) nostrils. (Her) voice was extremely hoarse and strained.”

Also indicted this week was Timothy James Packard, 31, of 34 First St., Lewiston, on charges of aggravated assault, obstructing report of a crime or injury and violation of condition of release.

In that case, a Sabattus Police Department officer wrote in a sworn statement that the alleged victim reported Packard had choked her during the evening of Feb. 2.

“I could see that (she) clearly had red marks around her neck consistent with someone grabbing someone around the neck,” the officer wrote in court papers. The victim reported she started to get dizzy, but hadn’t lost consciousness.

In the third case, Jason Webster, 36, of 268 Sawyer Road, Greene, was indicted Tuesday on a single count of aggravated assault.

An Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department Deputy wrote in a sworn statement that he was dispatched to a domestic violence report on the evening of Dec. 5. The alleged victim told the deputy that Webster “threw her onto (the) bed, pinned her down and began to strangle her with both of his hands around her throat.”

Emond and Packard are being held without bail at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn. Webster is free on $400 cash bail.

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