RUMFORD – In two separate incidents, two Rumford men were arrested this week and charged with raping two children, police said.
Steven Morton, 20, was charged Tuesday morning with gross sexual assault for an incident reported to have happened earlier that morning. He failed to post $10,000 cash bail and was taken to Oxford County Jail in Paris.
Joshua A. Harnden, 24, was charged late Monday morning with gross sexual assault in connection with an incident alleged to have happened last September. He was released on a $30,000 surety bail.
Although each is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 8 in Rumford District Court, Detective Lt. Stacy Carter said he expects each will be indicted by an Oxford County grand jury next month.
Should that happen, the men would be arraigned in Oxford County Superior Court at a later date.
In the case against Morton, Carter said police received a report at 1:20 a.m. Tuesday that a child under the age of 12 had been sexually assaulted. Carter refused to say whether the victim is a boy or a girl.
Sgt. Tracey Higley and Patrolman David Bean responded, then called Detective Sgt. George Cayer to assist.
“The victim’s family provided information on a suspect who had left the scene,” Carter said.
He said that the reported suspect, Morton, was located at 8 a.m. Tuesday in Rumford’s downtown area. The investigation is continuing.
The case against Harnden, Carter said, involves a child under the age of 16 who went to the police station on Sept. 30, 2004, and reported having been sexually assaulted.
Carter, who was assigned to investigate it, also refused to identify whether the child is male or female.
He said that through the collection of evidence and evidence analysis work by the Maine State Police Crime Lab in Augusta, probable cause was found to arrest and charge Harnden with the crime.
Gross sexual assault is a Class A felony, punishable by up to 40 years in prison upon conviction.
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