WATERVILLE — Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney plans to announce Thursday morning whether her office will press criminal charges against former Waterville High School Principal Don Reiter.
Reiter has been accused of calling a female student into his office Aug. 27 and asking the girl for sex.
Maloney said Wednesday afternoon that she will announce her decision at 10 a.m. Thursday at the District Attorney’s Office in Augusta and would answer additional questions about the case.
Reiter, 44, of Mount Vernon, was dismissed from his job as high school principal Monday night following a 6-1 vote by the Waterville Board of Education. He had been on paid administrative leave from his job since September while school officials conducted an internal investigation.
Separately, the Waterville Police Department in September completed a criminal investigation of Reiter and sent its findings to Maloney’s office for review. The district attorney has previously said she did not want to announce a decision until the Waterville school board completed a disciplinary hearing for Reiter.
Augusta attorney Walt McKee, who is now representing Reiter in a possible criminal case, responded to Maloney’s announcement in a written statement Wednesday afternoon.
“Regardless of what you think did or didn’t happen, there was no crime here,” McKee said in the statement. “The charge that I understand is being considered doesn’t even have any bearing on the accusations here. But that’s why we have courts and I assure you there will be a vigorous defense that challenges not only the allegations but also the very law the state is going to try to apply.”
It is against state law for a teacher to have sexual contact with a student under the age of 18.
Reiter has also recently been accused of having inappropriate relationships with two female students when he previously taught in New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
Maloney said Tuesday that she was reviewing letters Reiter allegedly sent one of the women from New Hampshire given to Waterville police during their investigation.
On Wednesday, Maloney said she had completed her review.
“I just got it done. I read through everything I had,” she said.
In the New Hampshire allegations, one student said she had sex with Reiter during her senior year of high school at Mascenic Regional High School or just after she graduated. The other said she had an inappropriate relationship with him, and police were given 147 pages of letters purportedly from Reiter referencing the relationship, according to Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey.
Waterville police Detective Sgt. Bill Bonney on Tuesday was still compiling reports from the New Hampshire investigation, and once that is complete, the department would determine what steps to take next, including turning the information over to local police in New Hampshire, Massey said.
Massey has said that New Ipswich Police Chief Timothy Carpenter requested information regarding that investigation so the New Hampshire department could review and possibly take action. Carpenter has not responded to repeated messages left daily since Sunday.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
pmcguire@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire
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