Deputy Ken Hatch of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Tuesday and taken into custody at Two Bridges Regional Jail on two charges of Sexual Abuse of a Minor, a Class C felony, Tim Feeley, communications director for the Maine Attorney General, confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, the sheriff’s office issued a press release stating that Hatch was under criminal investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, and was on administrative leave.

Hatch was released from the jail Tuesday afternoon on $50,000 unsecured bail, according to Two Bridges staff.

Hatch is scheduled to appear Aug. 25 at 8:30 a.m. in Wiscasset District Court, Feeley said later.

Hatch has been with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office since 1999, according to Chief Deputy Ken Mason.

The Boothbay Register reported in April on a ceremony before the County Commissioners, at which Hatch was named Deputy Sheriff of the Year. In 2015, he was commended, along with Deputy First Class Brian Collamore, by Sheriff Todd Brackett for meritorious service in the rescue of an elderly Whitefield man who had deliberately cut off his hand with a table saw.

According to court documents unrelated to this week’s charges, in 2002, Hatch shot and killed Michael Buchanan of Somerville, a man with a history of mental illness, while responding to a welfare check after Buchanan set fire to a neighbor's wood pile. The shooting was ruled justifiable, in defense of a fellow officer who had been stabbed by Buchanan, but the estate of the deceased man filed suit against Hatch, charging, among other things, wrongful death, and a violation of Buchanan's civil rights. The suit was dismissed in 2006.