MAN SENTENCED IN SEXUAL ASSAULT OF TEEN GIRL IN GROTON

A man from Willimantic was sentenced this week to 15 years in prison, suspended after six years served, for the sexual assault of a then 15-year-old girl at a Groton hotel.

Levern Flowers, 46, was sentenced in New London Superior Court to two 15-year sentences to be served concurrently, suspended after six years, followed by 10 years’ probation for sexually assaulting the teen at the Roadway Inn in Groton in October 2018.

Flowers also was convicted of assaulting the girl in Tolland and in Old Saybrook, according to police and court records.

The sentence was delivered by Judge Hillary B. Strackbein, who ordered that Flowers have no contact with his victim and no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16. She also issued a criminal protective order for the victim.

Flowers’ attorney, Kirstin Coffin, asked that Flowers be allowed contact with his daughter, who is under the age of 16, which the judge approved pending approval from his probation program.

Coffin also asked for credit for time served by her client, dating back to July 2018. She told the court her client suffered from “significant unaddressed mental health problems.”

The Groton Town Police Department issued a warrant for Flowers’ arrest after he was arrested in Tolland. He was charged by Groton police while he was in custody at the Geographical Area 10 court in New London. The girl he assaulted had been reported missing from Norwich, police said.

Flowers was arrested in Old Saybrook on May 18, 2018, and charged with second-degree sexual assault and illegal sexual contact with a person under the age of 16 for assault on the same girl. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Nov. 10, 2020, to 15 years in prison, suspended after seven years, with 10 years’ probation for the sexual contact, and 10 years in prison, suspended after seven years, with 10 years’ probation for the sexual assault, according to court records. He was arrested again by state police from Troop C in Tolland on July 10, 2018, on the same charges. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in October to 15 years, suspended after seven years, with 10 years’ probation for the assault and five years in prison for the sexual contact, according to court records. All sentences will be served concurrently.