AUGUSTA -- A jury found an Albion man guilty Friday of one count of unlawful sexual contact and two counts of possession of sexually explicit materials, all involving a teenage girl, but not guilty of several other allegations that he had sex with the girl numerous times when she was 13-15 years old, and possessed nude photos of her she sent him at his request.

Sean M. Eori Kennebec County Sheriff's Office photo

Sean Eori, 44, was accused of having sex with a teenage girl as many as 100 times over a year-and-a-half period, and possessing several nude photographs of her on his phone, but found not guilty on most of those allegations.

Following a weeklong trial, Eori was found guilty of unlawful sexual contact for, between Jan. 8, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, subjecting the girl, who was 14 or 15 years old at the time, to sexual contact.

He was also found guilty of two counts of possession of sexually explicit materials for having nude photographs of the girl on his phone.

All three counts are Class D misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in jail.

He was found not guilty on the fifth day of his trial, of seven other charges, the most serious of them, gross sexual assault, a Class A crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

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His attorney, Walter McKee, said overall the verdict was a favorable outcome for Eori.

"Tremendously pleased with the verdict, though we wish there were acquittals in the other misdemeanor charges, as well," McKee said.

Numerous family members and friends of people on both sides of the case reacted with emotion after the jury verdict, with multiple members of Eori's family breaking out into tears

Justice Daniel Mitchell said sentencing is to be scheduled on the three charges he was found guilty of. Eori will remain out on bail pending sentencing.

Assistant District Attorney Amanda Seekins, in her closing arguments, told jurors the girl was violently raped by Eori multiple times, had no reason to make up the allegations, described the incidents in detail, thought she loved him so she didn't think, at the time, what he did to her was wrong, and that he told her to take photographs of her nude, other than wearing socks, which he later masturbated into, and those photographs were found on Eori's phone by state investigators, and text messages between the two and Eori's own statements corroborate the girl's account of what he did to her, where, and when.

"The evidence shows when you put all the pieces together, it's crystal clear the defendant is guilty," Seekins told the 14 jurors who heard the case. Seekins noted it doesn't matter that the girl may have consented to some of the sexual acts, because it is still illegal for an adult to have sex with a child. It also doesn't matter that she joked about sex with him in text messages, or that she didn't correctly remember details about some of the alleged sexual encounters, such was whether there was a light switch in a building in which she said she was sexually assaulted.

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"What matters is he had sex with a child," Seekins said.

McKee, told jurors the girl making the allegations against Eori lied on the witness stand, lacked credibility, and was manipulative and attention-seeking, there was no physical or medical evidence that any crime took place between the two despite testing of the girl's underwear for any semen or DNA from Eori, and that Eori never had sex with her even once, let alone the 100 times she alleged.

McKee said there was no DNA or other evidence found by police because the pair never had sex, on any occasion. He pointed out times he said the girl's testimony on the witness stand early in the trial were untrue, calling her credibility into question. He said Eori suspected the girl was trying to blackmail him, alleging that she had told him about her and a friend trying to blackmail another person by sending him nude photographs.

"Sean Eori is not guilty, he did not commit these crimes," McKee said. "This case comes down to one issue and one issue alone. Credibility. It's really about trust. Can you trust a person when they haven't told you the truth? Because sometimes small lies are indicative of big lies."

Eori took the stand in his own defense Wednesday. He said he never once had sex with the girl. He also said he was gay, which he said was why he had divorced his wife following a short marriage. He said that before the trial he had only disclosed he was gay to his parents, after the girl made the allegations against him. He said he never had sex with the girl and his relationship with her, which included having lunch together, and him sometimes picking her up after school, and exchanging numerous electronic messages with each other, was like that of an uncle, and he tried to help her with her troubled relationship with her family.

Eori was indicted in 2023 on one count of gross sexual assault, three counts of unlawful sexual contact, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and four counts of possession of sexually explicit materials.

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Prosecutors allege Eori sexually assaulted the girl multiple times when she was between 13 and 15 years old. They also said Eori has known the girl since she was a baby.

The girl said Eori had taken her virginity and violently sexually assaulted her, sometimes until she would bleed. She said Eori always had a loaded gun on him. She said when she told him it hurt, he seemed to like it, and continued sexually assaulting her.

The Kennebec Journal is not identifying the girl because its policy is not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault without their permission.

Eori, on the witness stand, acknowledged receiving nude photographs of the girl but said he did not ask for them. He said normally he deleted them from his phone, but he took a screenshot of at least one of them. He said he took the screenshot of that nude photograph because he planned to show it to her father, who was his friend, and to talk about the girl with him. However he said he later decided not to share the photographs with her father, and deleted them.

In a recorded telephone call, the girl called Eori and confronted him about their alleged sex acts together. At one point she said, to him, "So we've had sex, right?"

To which he replied, on a recording Seekins played in court Thursday, "Okay."

Eori said on the stand he deeply regretted his response in that phone call, saying he didn't deny the accusations she was making because he was worried that would make her hang up, and he wanted to try to help her with whatever she was struggling with.

Eori owned the D&R Campground in China and is a co-owner of the Winterport Dragway car racing track, according to municipal records and social media. In her video interview, the girl said Eori has partial ownership of Air Control Industries, a business in Windsor.

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