BANGOR, Maine — A Sorrento woman charged in connection with a 2006 fire that destroyed a home used for a marijuana-growing operation pleaded not guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to damaging more than $1,000 worth of federal property.

Cecelia Nicole Sanborn, 25, of Sorrento, was released on personal recognizance bail. Conditions include no alcohol or illegal drug use, random testing for their use, and not possessing firearms or dangerous weapons. She must also seek employment and counseling.

Her trial was tentatively set for Feb. 2 in federal court in Bangor.

If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a possible fine of $250,000.

Sanborn is charged with damaging her mother’s former residence at 6 West Side Road in Sorrento on June 8, 2006. The house was destroyed in an early morning fire that investigators said was of suspicious origin. The power had been turned off and the home had been vacant since March 2004, when Cecelia Sanborn’s mother, Roxana Sanborn, 60, also known as Roxana Carter, and her live-in companion, Craig Folsom, 54, were arrested and charged with growing marijuana in the home.

The Hancock County Drug Task Force, acting on a tip, executed a search warrant at the home, according to a story previously published in the Bangor Daily News. Inside, law enforcement officers found approximately 450 marijuana plants, 10 pounds of processed marijuana, $16,000 in cash, two rifles, a quarter-ounce of cocaine, several ounces of hashish and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Roxana Sanborn was sentenced two days before the fire to 16 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to drug charges. Folsom was sentenced in August 2005 to 27 months in federal prison for his role in the operation.

She was released in June 2007 and he was released in March 2007, according to the inmate locator Web site maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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