Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Dark Down East is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment, and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home, or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started. It never should have happened.
He was too old to kill again. When Albert Flick was released from his first prison sentence for killing his wife, he restarted his pattern of threatening and victimizing women. But he'd age out of it, wouldn't he? Statistics said so. His drooping, wrinkled face and frail body did not look like that of a brazen killer.
He'd be in his mid-70s by the time he was free again. Surely, the threat he posed to society would fade. But that would not be the case. The stories of these three women, and the unnamed women also victimized by the same man, will have you asking, "What is justice, really?"
Does it, and can it exist, when a convicted killer is afforded more mercy than those whose lives he threatened and ended? I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. It was over. Sandra served Albert the divorce papers that day, January 10th, 1979.
Sandra worried that Albert would not be amicable to the situation, so Westbrook police were on hand to escort her soon-to-be ex-husband from their home. 35-year-old Sandra Flick was married before she became Mrs. Albert Flick and had a 12-year-old daughter from that previous marriage. Sandra's daughter was home on January 29th when Albert came back to pick up some of his belongings from their once-shared apartment.
Sandra had asked him to stop by, but they'd been feuding since the day the divorce papers were served. According to court records, the main dispute was custody of their children. There was no telling how the interaction might go. Sandra's daughter, whose name I've decided not to use for privacy reasons, was in a back bedroom of their Brown Street apartment when Albert showed up. She could hear muffled conversation between her mother and Albert, something about fishing poles.
Through a crack in the door, the young girl watched as her mother fetched the fishing poles in question. Albert fiddled in his pocket, retrieving a jackknife. He wanted to show Sandra how to remove the hooks from the fishing lines. The situation went from benign to chaotic, quickly. As Sandra bent over the fishing pole to reach for the hook, Albert suddenly grabbed her arm, bending it behind her back and pressing his other hand over her mouth.
Sandra called out her daughter's name, a mother's first instinct in danger to protect her child, and the girl ran from the back bedroom and out of the apartment towards help. She caught one more glimpse of Albert, who had overtaken her mother, and was pinning her to the chair. Sandra's daughter reached their downstairs neighbors, a husband and wife, on the second floor. When they opened the door, they found the girl saying that Albert was going to kill her mother.
The wife called 911 as her husband climbed the stairs to check on Sandra. As he was bounding the steps, he encountered Albert, covered in blood. Albert asked the neighbor for help. He said he didn't mean to do it. When first responders arrived, they found Sandra with her throat cut, among other injuries.
She was transported to a Portland hospital, where she later died. But not before telling police exactly who was responsible for her death: her soon-to-be ex-husband, Albert Flick. Albert Flick was working as a doughnut baker in the Westbrook, Maine area when he was indicted on murder charges for killing his wife, Sandra. Sandra's daughter became a key witness at trial, testifying to what she saw through the slightly-ajar bedroom door.
The medical examiner testified to the injuries on Sandra Flick's body, her multiple cuts and stab wounds on her neck and chest. Court records reveal that some of the cuts were classified as defense wounds, indicating Sandra fought for her life against Albert's attack.
But when Albert Flick took the stand in his own defense, he testified that it was all a big accident. He wasn't the aggressor. He would have been the victim had he not acted, he claimed. According to Albert's testimony, the day before he arrived at the apartment to collect his things, he and Sandra got into an argument. It was heated, and he said Sandra threatened to harm herself and the children before she would ever let him have custody of their kids.
When he showed up at the apartment to collect his things, this argument started up again, and according to Albert, he pushed Sandra into a chair. They were yelling at each other, and Sandra told her daughter to go downstairs. Albert testified that he tried to walk away, but Sandra grabbed the jackknife and began to threaten him. He grabbed Sandra, and they both fell, Albert on top of her. Quote, After that, I don't know what happened. End quote.
Five minutes later, Sandra was covered in blood, he said. The charge was murder, that is, intentionally or knowingly causing the death of Sandra Flick, or engaging in conduct which manifested a depraved indifference to the value of human life. Sandra was able to name her attacker before she died, so the who was not in question.
but the defense really tried to present that Albert did not act with depraved indifference or intention to cause the death of anyone. However, the testimony of Sandra's daughter and the medical examiner was convincing that murder was the appropriate charge. As was the other physical evidence presented at trial, police searched Albert's car, which he'd parked several blocks away from the apartment building.
They recovered a firearm and ammunition, as well as a box for the jackknife that was later determined to be the murder weapon. In the eyes of the state, Albert had come prepared to carry out a plan. The jury ultimately found that the state proved its case against Albert Flick beyond a reasonable doubt, finding him guilty of murder.
At his sentencing hearing in August of 1979, Albert's family asked for a minimum sentence for the man who they said had grown up around violence and had been discharged from the army for hardship. The judge was unmoved by their testimony though, saying that though this was Albert's first run-in with the law, many people face the pressures and challenges of divorce without resulting to physical violence.
In addition, the judge classified the crime as particularly brutal. As quoted in the Portland Press-Herald, Justice Harry P. Glassman said, "I have rarely seen as much blood in this courtroom." End quote. Albert was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He'd be 65 years old upon his release if he served the entire sentence. But Albert Flick did not serve his entire 30-year sentence.
He was released after about 20-25 years, some sources citing good behavior resulting in his early release. But once Albert was back on the streets, he wasted no time with bad behavior. According to his criminal record, Albert was charged with misdemeanor assault involving domestic violence, criminal threatening, and felony assault in 2007 for stabbing his girlfriend with a fork.
Two months after that, he was charged with witness tampering when he wrote letters to his victim asking that she not testify against him. As a result of those two separate incidents, Albert was sentenced to six months in jail and then another two years in prison. When Albert was released from prison once again in 2010, his victimization of women continued.
On the afternoon of April 14, 2010, a Portland police officer was dispatched to the West End neighborhood of Portland's Peninsula. There, the officer met with a woman I'll call Cassie, though that is not her real name. According to the incident report, Cassie was standing outside the soapbox laundromat extremely upset and visibly trembling. As the officer calmed her down, she began to explain what she'd just narrowly escaped.
Cassie lived just around the corner from the laundromat and down the street from her friend Albert Flick's apartment. She popped into his place to pick up a few dollars for some cigarettes, and she lingered there a while and visited with Albert. The nature of their visit or topics of conversation are not disclosed in any incident reports or statements, but an hour into their visit, Cassie wrote in her statement that Albert said he had something for her.
He left the kitchen area to retrieve whatever it was he had for Cassie, but something about Albert's behavior frightened her in that moment. So she made for the door. Before she could leave the apartment, though, Albert was attacking her. He held what Cassie believed was a bread-type knife in his hand. He grabbed Cassie and began stabbing her with the handle of the knife, the butt end, taunting her as he did this, asking if she was scared.
Cassie fought against Albert and was able to knock the knife away. Albert told her, "If that won't do it, this will." But Cassie didn't wait around to see what Albert was referencing. She escaped out the front door and ran back to her own apartment down the street. She watched from her porch as Albert, apparently holding a screwdriver, made his way up the alleyway next to her building. Cassie made it inside, locking herself away from the danger.
She saw Albert drop the screwdriver and retreat. Cassie knew that Albert was on probation at the time, so she called Albert's probation officer to inform him of what just happened. The probation officer, fully aware of Albert's crimes and violent behavior towards women, called the Portland Police Department on Cassie's behalf. As the Portland Police officer stood outside the laundromat taking Cassie's statement and comforting the clearly frightened woman,
A friend of Cassie's approached them, saying that she saw Albert walking towards his house with a rope around his neck. The Portland officer, who was on the phone with Albert's probation officer Troy Thornton, asked Troy to meet him at Albert's apartment. Officers found Albert Flick in an active attempt to take his own life. Albert had lost consciousness, but the officers were able to intervene. After a few moments, Albert woke up.
Officers searched Albert for any weapons just before an ambulance and EMTs arrived to treat him. He was transported to Maine Medical Center for further treatment and observation. Meanwhile, Cassie told the officers that she wanted Albert to be prosecuted for what he did to her. On Friday, June 25, 2010, Albert Flick entered a Cumberland County Superior Courtroom to face Judge Robert E. Crowley.
Albert was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and assault. He pleaded guilty to both charges, waiving the right to a trial by judge or a jury. Judge Crowley accepted the pleas and proceeded to the sentencing of Albert Flick. The judge opened the arguments to Assistant District Attorney Catherine Tierney first. Tierney requested the longest possible consecutive sentence for the given charges.
Here's what she said to the judge, directly from the transcript. Quote,
When he was released, he then assaulted a girlfriend of his and was also convicted of criminal threatening. That was back in 2008. While he was in jail, he tampered with that victim by sending her letters and requesting that she not testify against him. He was charged and convicted of tampering and violation of bail also in 2008. Those are the cases that he's on probation for.
We now have him on probation. This is his second violation. And this new conduct is again involving knives, involving a woman that he had maybe not a true relationship with, but at least a sexual relationship with.
I know that the defendant is an older man and that the court and society may think that this individual is going to stop committing crimes, especially crimes against women and violent crimes against women with weapons. But his history has really shown that he's just not about to do that. And so I think the only appropriate sentence is for a significant time in prison. Clearly, probation is not working. I'm hesitant to have him back on probation. At this point, I just don't know what else to do.
I think there's a huge safety risk to a woman and society when it comes to Mr. Flick, end quote. Albert's probation officer, Troy Thornton, also addressed the judge, saying, quote, To me, Your Honor, there's no better predictor for future behavior than past behavior.
The parole officer went on to request certain conditions should Albert be granted probation in the future.
He asked that Albert be subject to random search and test for drugs and dangerous weapons, that he would have to live in approved housing, and that he must disclose any romantic or sexual relationships during probation. Judge Crowley considered the request of the state. They were asking for full revocation of Albert's current probation, the balance of which was three years and 11 months, plus a consecutive four-year sentence for the new criminal conduct.
That would be just shy of an eight-year sentence for Albert Flick. From the transcript again, the judge began, quote, There's no dispute among any of the participants in this proceeding that there should be a full revocation of the probation, which yields a sentence of three years and 11 months with probation to terminate.
And the issue is what's the appropriate sentence after that? And any sentences that go out into the future for any length of time aren't necessarily predictive in nature and are based upon certain assumptions as to somebody's future conduct.
There's absolutely nothing in Mr. Flick's past history that suggests that he is going to choose to abandon his behaviors of assaultive conduct towards women. However, from his appearance and the fact of his date of birth, he will be 72 or 73 when released from the probation revocation. At some point, Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, and incarcerating him beyond the time that he ages out
End quote.
With that, Judge Crowley fully revoked Albert's current probation, the nearly four-year balance to be spent in prison. For the new charges for his assault on Cassie, Albert was given a three-year suspended sentence with one year of probation.
A suspended sentence meant Albert wouldn't serve those three years unless he violated the terms of his probation, which would include the additional requests made by the probation officer and a request by the assistant district attorney that Albert not have any contact with Cassie upon his release.
That was that. Despite the request by both the assistant district attorney and probation officer to sentence Albert to the maximum possible time in prison for the charges, citing his continued violence against women and threat to society, Judge Crowley felt that Albert would just be too old to keep up his behavior upon release.
If you look at a 2017 study by the United States Sentencing Commission about the effects of aging on recidivism among federal offenders, the ruling made by the judge was based on statistical evidence. According to that study, 13.4% of offenders 65 years of age or older reoffended in the eight years after their release, whereas 68% of offenders under the age of 21 reoffended.
Recidivism steadily declines as the offenders get older, the study shows. The percentage of people 65 years of age or older recommitting crimes after they're released might be low, but it's not zero. The words of Albert's probation officer would sadly ring true. Quote, End quote.
In 2014, after Albert was released from prison and was serving out his probation, he was walking down Congress Street in Portland when he crossed paths with Cassie, the woman he'd assaulted and was specifically prohibited from contacting. Instead of changing his course or avoiding Cassie, Albert approached her and got in her face. He said to Cassie, "You'll get yours."
Albert was arrested on felony criminal threatening charges, but later pleaded to a lesser charge of violating his probation. Again, Albert went to prison for two years. As reported by the New York Times, Albert moved to the Lewiston, Maine area upon his release in 2016. Two years later, he met a woman named Kimberly.
Kimberly, whose last name I won't be using, was working towards a better life for herself and her two children after losing her job. They were living in a shelter, but she'd just secured a new apartment in Farmington, Maine, and was eager to get her kids back in a home all their own. They spent a lot of time at the local library in Lewiston, where the kids liked to use the computers, and Kimberly made friends. That's where she was first acquainted with Albert Flick.
The Portland Press-Herald reported that Albert offered to buy the kids lunch. Kimberly was over-the-top nice, her friends told the Press-Herald. Bubbly, cheerful, always smiling, they said. She didn't have it in her to be rude or mean to anyone. It wasn't in her nature, they said, even though Albert began to make her uncomfortable.
While Albert and Kimberly were friends to some degree, reports say that Albert wanted a romantic relationship with Kimberly, and she turned him down. According to reporting by Bonnie Washak for the Press-Herald, when talk turned to Kimberly moving to the new apartment in Farmington with her children, Albert said they'd have to get a U-Haul truck for the move. Kimberly wasn't sure what that meant. Her things were already in storage in Farmington, and it wasn't a U-Haul's worth of things.
Albert had been referring to his stuff, his things. He decided he was moving with her. Kimberly made it clear that Albert was not. But Albert wouldn't leave her alone. He began buying her clothes, which she gave back. He was following her around, trailing her from across the street or a distance behind. This was stalking behavior, though Kimberly did not report it.
Perhaps she believed the issue would resolve itself. After all, she'd had that apartment in Farmington and would be moving soon, an hour away from Albert. July 15th, 2018 was supposed to be moving day for Kimberly and her children. That was also the day that Albert Flick followed her to Rancourt's Laundromat in Lewiston.
She'd just started a load of laundry and stepped outside with her kids to make a phone call when Albert approached with a pink paring knife he'd bought at Walmart the night before. He ended Kimberly's life on that sidewalk, in broad daylight, in front of her kids. The details of the attack are available in other sources online, but I will not be expanding on them here.
I will tell you though, that a bystander was able to dropkick Albert and pin him to the ground until authorities arrived. When Albert was back in the courtroom for his most recent deadly attack on a woman, the jury only needed 40 minutes to convict him of murder. At his sentencing hearing in August of 2019, Albert finally got the only sentence that would keep him from harming another woman in his life.
Justice Mary Gay Kennedy told him, "Mr. Flick, you have not taken responsibility. You have shown no remorse." She described the attack as "despicable" and stated, "What is almost incomprehensible is that Mr. Flick has done this before." Kimberly's death and the horror her children witnessed never should have happened.
If Albert was sentenced to the full eight years when the courts had the chance, he would not have been out on the streets in 2018. Or if Albert hadn't pleaded to a lesser charge when he threatened Cassie for a second time, maybe he would have still been behind bars in 2018. His sentence, handed down by a female judge, life in prison. At 80 years old and in his health, this could be the shortest sentence Albert's ever served.
There's no justice in this case though. A conclusion maybe, but certainly not justice. Kimberly was loved for her kind and gentle spirit. Her obituary reads, "She had a ready smile and a quick wit, and she befriended everyone she met. Kim loved the beach, and Christmas was her favorite season. Her children were her greatest joy."
At the candlelight vigil held in her honor, a friend spoke so warmly of Kimberly saying, "Her smile will be eternal, a big bright spot in all of our lives. She is not a woman that will be forgotten." The World Health Organization calls violence against women, especially intimate partner violence, a major public health problem and violation of women's human rights.
About one in three women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence by partners or non-partners in their lifetime. Trans women, women of color, native women, and women with low income are disproportionately impacted by this violence. It impacts all aspects of a woman's life, their health, and well-being. If you are experiencing domestic violence, help is available.
Call 1-800-799-SAFE or text START to 88788. You can also visit thehotline.org for other private ways to connect to the help and resources you need. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East.
Sources for this episode are cited within the episode itself and include the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press-Herald, and more. Source material for this case and others is listed and linked at darkdowneast.com so you can do some more digging of your own.
If you know of an active missing persons case in Maine or Greater New England, send me an email with the subject line missing to hello at darkdowneast.com. I will share the information on an upcoming episode of Dark Down East and at darkdowneast.com slash missing.
Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.
