On Jan. 19, a 22-year-old Edgecomb man, who pled guilty to assaulting a toddler in 2014, was sentenced to five years in prison, all but nine months suspended plus three years probation.

In October 2015, Matthew Grasser Jr. admitted to striking and breaking a 20-month-old child’s arm on Dec. 4, 2014. The child was taken to Miles Memorial Hospital the next day for a swollen elbow, where doctors determined the child’s arm was broken and also discovered bruises on the child’s arms, face and back. At the request of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the child was also evaluated at Spurwink Clinic in Portland, where the determination of child abuse was confirmed. According to the Dec. 9, 2014 police report, when questioned by Lincoln County Sheriff Deputy Ronald Rollins, Grasser said he was home alone with the child and trying to sleep. “Out of frustration, he slapped (the child) across the face and may have jerked his arm too hard causing it to break,” the report states.

The child’s mother submitted a letter to the court in which she detailed the physical and emotional trauma her child had sustained in the assault and its lingering effects. She requested the court sentence Grasser to 2.5 years in prison plus three years probation. Before the abuse occurred, DHHS had removed the child from his mother's custody and placed him with his aunt and Grasser in Edgecomb. After Grasser’s arrest, the child was returned to his mother’s custody.

Grasser will serve his nine-month sentence at Two Bridges Regional Jail. Under his probation conditions, Grasser will be required to complete mental health counseling, have no direct contact with children under the age of 16 except incidental to work, and to have no direct or indirect contact with the child or the child’s mother. The probation order also requires that any contact with family members under 16 years of age be supervised.