SKOWHEGAN -- The state has dismissed charges of rape, assault, and terrorizing against Customs and Border Protection officer Steven Arthur Hinkley due to a lack of evidence.

Follow-up investigation done by the district attorney's office and state police established that the "matter cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt," according to recently released court documents.

Evert Fowle, district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties, said the decision speaks for itself: "Additional information has convinced us ..."

Hinkley, 40, was accused of twice of going to the home of a co-worker, forcing her to have sex, and then threatening to kill her, her children and himself, if she reported the crime.

He was indicted by a Somerset County grand jury in January 2008 on two counts of gross sexual assault, terrorizing and two counts of assault. According to the indictment, both assaults took place in Sandy Bay Township, where the U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry is located.

The first rape allegedly occurred on Feb. 20, 2007, and the second three weeks later, a time frame Hinkley's Skowhegan attorney, Paul Sumberg, said he finds troubling.

"There were two allegations of rape, the first one and then, about three weeks later, allegations of rape No. 2," Sumberg said last week. "He rapes her at her home, she let him in, did not release it to police, and he comes to her home (again), and she lets him in for rape No. 2?"

Sumberg called the charges "preposterous."