Lebanon boarder found guilty in meth lab case

Aaron Lowden ... facing a minimum of four years.

 ALFRED - It was back on Jan. 14 of last year that Deborah Wilson sat in her Lebanon home and began noticing the man she had rented an upstairs bedroom to going down into her cellar where he had no business.

“I asked him what he was doing and he said he was allergic to soap and was making a protein rinse to wash his face,” she said on Friday.

Pretty soon the whole house started smelling like chemicals, she said, and a friend visiting her said she should call 911, so she did.

It wasn’t long before the place was crawling with cops and Aaron Lowden, then 41, was arrested for running a meth lab in the basement of Wilson’s Bigelow Road home.

This morning Lowden was found guilty by a York County Superior Court jury, and is expected to spend a minimum of four years in prison, perhaps even more because it is his second such conviction. Wilson said she was told.

Wilson said she had to testify at Lowden’s trial on Thursday and, “it was very scary for me.”

Jonathan Sahrbeck, an assistant Attorney General who worked on the case, confirmed that Lowden had been found guilty in trafficking of meth and “was very appreciative” of Wilson’s testimony at trial.

Since Lowden is still awaiting sentencing he declined further comment, but did say he was “satisfied with the outcome.”

Wilson said a lot of media outlets represented Lowden as some homeless man she took off the street and allowed in her home, but on the contrary, he had been referred to her by a relative of a friend and had appeared very courteous and professional when she first met him.

Wilson said she wanted to thank Lebanon Fire and Lebanon Rescue, the York County Sheriff’s Office, the Maine State Police and the Maine DEA for their work in the case.

She suggests that anyone contemplating taking in boarders should ask them to go to the State Police or Sheriff's Department and obtain a printed copy of their criminal record for inspection.

She said she, herself, doesn’t take in boarders anymore.