Pastor Found Dead Was Being Investigated, by Nok-Noi Ricker, Portland Press Herald, November 15, 2011

Pastor Found Dead Was Being Investigated

By Nok-Noi Ricker
Portland Press Herald
November 15, 2011

www.pressherald.com/news/pastor-found-dead-was-being-investigated_2011-11-15.html

The Rev. Robert Carlson

The investigation was started last Thursday at the request of the Penobscot County District Attorney's Office, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. The request came after "the DA's office had received a letter," McCausland said.

"I'm not getting into" what the investigation was about, he said.

A Bowdoin woman said Monday that she and several other family members were contacted Friday and Saturday by a state police detective and interviewed about a child sex-abuse case from the 1970s involving Carlson and the woman's brother, who was 11 years old at the time.

Also Monday, Boy Scout leaders at the Katahdin Area Council said they turned over to state police detectives a letter concerning Carlson that includes allegations of child sex abuse.

"Marshall Steinmann, our council's Scout executive, received a letter this morning concerning this matter and immediately turned it over to the Maine State Police," Daniel Lee, president of the Katahdin Area Council, said in an email Monday afternoon.

"Questions concerning the contents and nature of the letter should be directed to the Maine State Police," he said later. "The Katahdin Area Council is presently unaware of any such allegations concerning Scouts past or present."

Lee also said, "Although his church used the scouting program as a part of its overall ministry, to our knowledge Rev. Carlson was never a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America."

Carlson was a former pastor of the East Orrington Congregational Church. He and his wife, Elaine, were honored last week at the Katahdin Area Council of Boy Scouts of America's 15th annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.

Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy declined to comment on the investigation Monday.

The Rev. Carl Schreiber of East Orrington Congregational Church said Monday night that Elaine Carlson had no comment about the investigation involving her husband.

Carlson was president and a founder of Penobscot Community Health Care; was a founder of Hope House, a Bangor shelter for those with drug and alcohol addictions; and had served as a chaplain for Husson College as well as the Bangor and Brewer police and fire departments, according to a recent Bangor Daily News story.

A Bowdoin woman said the second she picked up the phone on Friday and heard the voice of state police Detective Jay Pelletier, "I knew it was about Bob Carlson."

"My brother came clean to the family" a couple of years ago about what she described as an ongoing sexual relationship he had with Carlson. "Bob had been part of his life since he was 12 years old," the woman told the Bangor Daily News. "Everybody (in the family) knew."

The Portland Press Herald is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the allegation.

Another relative from Alton, who asked not to be identified, said she was interviewed by Pelletier on Saturday and that she was angry about local media coverage of Carlson's death.

"It was disgusting to see 'Beloved' on the front page of the BDN," the woman said.

Carlson befriended the young boy's mother, who was single and had six children, in the 1970s when the family lived in Orrington, both women said.

After their relative revealed his relationship with Carlson, the Alton woman asked him why he never went to police.

"Back then he was a pastor at Orrington and 'Who would have listened?" was his basic response, she recalled.

No charges ever were lodged against Carlson in the 1970s.

"My family member was a child and he molded him, he groomed him and he never let him go -- all in the name of God," she said with obvious anger in her voice. "He controlled him and it never stopped. Even after he became an adult."

The Bowdoin woman said her brother never worked, but had an apartment and money because of Carlson.

The two relatives said they did not know how police got their names and those of others in the family.

Both tried to contact their relative, but he did not return their calls.

The Bangor Daily News is not identifying him because of the possibility that he is a victim.

Penobscot Community Health Care officials said they were not aware of any investigation or allegations involving Carlson.

"This is the first mention I have heard of anything like that," CEO Kenneth Schmidt said at a news conference Monday. "I know of no reason that there should be (an investigation). He's never spoken of anything to me. I was a close personal friend.

"Rev. Bob was a man of enormous integrity and caring and I think that's how all of us will remember him, no matter if anything comes up," Schmidt said.

Administrative officials at Husson University, where Carlson served as school chaplain for 12 years when it was known as Husson College, were asked Monday why he left the post, but they declined to comment.

"Due to the ongoing Maine State Police investigation, Husson University has no comment," said spokeswoman Julie Green.

Half a dozen people have been interviewed as part of the police investigation, McCausland said. Detectives had not spoken to Carlson, 68, before his death, he said.

"The investigation remains open at this point," McCausland said.

Sheriff Scott Story of the Waldo County Sheriff's Office said that no suicide note was found in Carlson's vehicle and there was no indication of foul play in his death.

A Bucksport woman called authorities at 3:55 a.m. Sunday to report that a vehicle had been abandoned in the middle of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, according to a news release issued Monday by the sheriff's office.

When deputies arrived, they found identification belonging to Carlson in the vehicle, which was parked on the right side of the eastbound lane. Officials began to search the river and found his body in the water later in the morning.

An autopsy Monday determined that Carlson drowned, but the manner of his death is still pending, said Mark Belserene, administrator of the state Medical Examiner's Office.

Police were examining the contents of Carlson's car Monday and interviewing the people he had last contacted.

There were no known eyewitnesses and no indications that anybody else was involved, Story said. The investigation should be complete by the end of the week.