Arrest for sexual touching follows request for black powder permit

by E.C. Shanor
     
     NORWAY - Keeping track of the town's registered sex offenders can be very challenging for Norway Police Detective Gary Hill, especially when the state lets him down.
     Recently, Hill says, Linwood C. Lord, 42, who was living on Alpine Street wanted to hunt with a blackpowder gun. But he was convicted of a felony-level offense in 1988. Under federal law, a felon is not permitted to own a firearm, but there's one exception.
     The law allows a felon with a special permit to have, and hunt with, an old-fashioned, black powder gun, during the special season for that purpose. Lord applied for one. Hill says it is a process similar to that for an ordinary citizen who applies for a permit to carry a concealed weapon (referred to as a "carry permit"). Both require a state police background check.
     It was the state police who contacted Detective Hill, to get his views on the applicant's appropriateness for the unusual permit. Hill says at that point, he had never encountered the man, but his review of the court record showed that the reason for the "felony" label attached to Lord's name was a 1988 conviction for unlawful sexual contact with a girl under the age of 14. The Sex Offender Registration act, which was enacted after the conviction but was retro-active, requires a sex offender to sign in with their police departments and, Hill says, Lord, had failed to do so.
     The detective brought this to the attention of the state police, but they could not come up with proof that Lord was ever notified that he had to register.
     About that time, (February, 2008), a woman came to the police office and reported that her daughter, an 11-year-old girl, had been touched "in sexual ways" by the step-father of one of the girl's schoolmates. Hill says he was not surprised to learn that the accused was the same
     Linwood Lord who'd asked for a black powder permit, was convicted of unlawful sexual touching 20 years ago.
     As the victim's mother gave Hill details about the Lord apartment, she mentioned that Lord had several firearms in his possession. With that bit of information, Hill says he obtained a search warrant and went to Lord's Alpine Street apartment and discovered that, indeed, the man had several modern firearms - two shotguns and a .40 millimeter Astra automatic pistol. None of them used black powder or loaded from the muzzle.
     Norway Police Chief Robert Federico said that the U.S. Attorney's Portland office had a "safe neighborhoods" campaign on that stressed prosecution of gun crimes. The U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, immediately started its own investigation and so notified Lord.
     Freed of the need to pursue Lord's firearms issues, Detective Hill focused on the more recent sexual touching complaint. The Spurwink Institute Child Abuse Clinic was asked to administer medical and psychiatric tests to evaluate the girl's story and it was determined by the experts that she was a reliable witness and had, in their opinion, experienced the alleged sexual touching.
     Based on Hill's findings, Lord was arrested, without incident, last Friday. He was released, pending an initial court appearance. on $1,000 cash bail and, according to Hill, has moved to Lewiston.