LIVERMORE FALLS – A local man accused of raping a woman Thursday was released on $1,200 cash from the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn later that day, police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said.

Charles E. Brewster, 50, of Livermore Falls was arrested on felony charges of gross sexual assault and violation of a protection from abuse order, Steward said

Brewster has a history of domestic violence and criminal convictions that include armed robbery, Steward said. He was sentenced to five to seven years to a Massachusetts prison on the latter crime in 1983. Livermore Falls police have dealt with him through the years, including in 1996 when police were called to a home regarding Brewster and a domestic violence case, Steward said. Brewster spent time in a federal prison in connection with that case, Steward said.

Police received a 911 call, transferred from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department, at 3:06 a.m. Thursday from a female caller who said Brewster had violated the protection order she had against him.

When officers responded to the location they found the victim had been sexually assaulted and that Brewster had violated the order, Steward said.

Brewster had left the residence by the time police arrived but he was found in the area and arrested by officer Vernon Stevens.

The woman went to the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for a forensic evaluation, Steward said.

Steward took the rape kit and other evidence collected at the scene Thursday to the State Police Crime Laboratory in Augusta, he said.

Steward said he was upset that Brewster was released on the cash bail set by a bail commissioner prior to going before a judge.

“I’m upset. He has demonstrated being violent with women in the past,” Steward said, and had come off federal probation.

Brewster is scheduled to appear Jan. 29, 2009, in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn on the new charges, a corrections officer said.