ALFRED — A former Kennebunk High School teacher charged with having a sexual relationship with a male student pleaded not guilty Monday to a 14-count indictment against her.
Jill LaMontagne, 29, of Kennebunk will remain free on $1,000 bail, according to court records. She is charged with six counts of gross sexual assault, six counts of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of unlawful sexual touching.
The alleged victim was a student at Kennebunk High School and had been in LaMontagne’s class previously before the alleged sexual contact began.
It is a Class C felony under Maine law for a teacher or any adult to have sexual contact with anyone over whom they have supervisory or disciplinary authority. Class C crimes carry a maximum prison sentence of five years, a $5,000 fine, or both.
The alleged assaults occurred on three dates between January and May 2017, when the student was under 18.
LaMontagne’s attorney, Scott Gardner, has asked a judge to order the York County District Attorney’s Office to turn over to him a copy of a videotaped interview with the alleged victim by a representative of the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to Gardner, the district attorney’s office will only allow him to view the material in the presence of a DA staffer.
“This hour-long interview represents the only memorialized statement made by the complaining witness of the relevant events in this matter,” Gardner wrote.
A message to Gardner was not immediately returned Monday. He said previously that the charges are baseless.
“The charges are completely untrue, period,” Gardner said in October. “These allegations arise from a high school rumor which consisted of the fantasies of an emotionally troubled 18-year-old.”
Lamontagne, a former health teacher, was placed on administrative leave June 12 when the family of a 17-year-old student notified school authorities he had sexual contact with her, RSU 21 Superintendent Katie Hawes said in June.
Shortly after she was placed on leave, Lamontagne filed for family medical leave with the district. Family medical leave laws allow an employee to take 12 weeks of leave during a 12-month period with supporting documentation provided by a doctor.
Lamontagne was still on leave when she tendered her resignation in early September, Hawes said. She did not return to the classroom this school year.
Details of the alleged relationship were disclosed in a protection from abuse order filed in Biddeford District Court by the student’s mother on the boy’s behalf.
The family sought the protection order two days after Lamontagne was placed on leave. It described how a sudden hospitalization for a suspected suicide attempt led the student to reveal the relationship to a family member, a registered nurse and a psychiatrist.
The Press Herald does not identify victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
A 2013 article published online in the Kennebunk High School newspaper said Lamontagne is a graduate of Kennebunk High School, received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine, and her master’s degree from the University of New England.
LaMontagne’s next scheduled appearance is in March for a dispositional conference.
According to a narrative included in the protection order, the boy was admitted to the emergency room June 9 after taking ibuprofen, Tylenol, cold medicine and warfarin, a blood thinner. A day later, he admitted to his aunt that rumors about him and Lamontagne were true. He had previously denied the relationship.
“He stated it was all true and he was sorry, so sorry for all the bad things he did,” the boy’s mother wrote. “He said he loved her, he said it happened numerous times, in the classroom, at her house, in her car. She told him that she hadn’t had a sexual relationship in two years.”
The boy said Lamontagne performed oral sex on him, and that “other stuff happened.”
He also admitted to his mother that he had told two classmates what happened when he was “wasted,” according to the protection order, but that he shouldn’t have said anything because he didn’t want Lamontagne to go to jail.
He described one day when Lamontagne was attending a workshop after a half-day, and that she instructed him to meet her at her home, which is about 2 miles away, where they “fooled around,” according to the protection order.
Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:
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