BELFAST, Maine — Three members of a Monroe family accused of growing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana in their Swan Lake Avenue garage were among 39 people indicted this week by the Waldo County Grand Jury.
James Francis Ford and his wife, Darlene Ford, both 55, and their son, Paul Ford, 31, all of Monroe, each were charged with one count of marijuana cultivation by the grand jury, which rose Wednesday.
Another son, James T. Ford, 34, of Dixmont, was indicted by the grand jury in February and charged with aggravated cultivation of marijuana and violation of conditions of release.
A November night time raid of the family’s home by members of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Maine State Police tactical team netted over 300 marijuana plants and 10 pounds of processed marijuana, according to the MDEA. The parents were suspected of harvesting about 20 pounds of marijuana every three months and shipping the product to Massachusetts, according to MDEA Supervisor Jim Pease.
“It was a very high-tech, very sophisticated, very neat grow,” he said then. “It was top-of-the-line everything.”
Police estimated that the street value of the plants could reach as much as $800,000.
In an email sent to the BDN after the raid, James F. Ford wrote that he was impressed by police conduct throughout the night.
“We were treated with dignity and respect,” he wrote. “No one got hurt or mistreated. … I have to stop short of saying this was a pleasurable experience but I was very impressed with the conduct of all the officers involved.”
In an interview earlier this spring, Ford said the family was not getting rich from growing marijuana, adding that they live in an apartment behind the garage.
“We don’t live like some kind of drug kingpins,” he said. “This whole growing marijuana and making money off it, for me, has been nothing more than keeping my head above water.”
Also indicted this week by the Waldo County Grand Jury were:
Charles C. Watson, 32, of Northport, negotiating a worthless instrument.
Kyle B. Young, 26, Lincolnville, unlawful possession of Oxycodone.
Bethany A. Wickham aka Bethany A. Parsons, 35, Bangor, aggravated assault, aggravated criminal trespass, criminal mischief.
Laura Walsh, 26, Swanville, unlawful possession of Vicodin.
William Vandorn, 19, Winterport, aggravated assault, domestic violence assault.
Anthony Ulmer, 36, Winterport, unlawful trafficking in morphine.
Patrick W. Turner, 49, Appleton, burglary, theft by unauthorized taking, trespass by a motor vehicle.
Michael E. Turner, 51, Freedom, negotiating a worthless instrument.
Troy C. Thomas, Jr., 28, Belfast, two counts operating after revocation, forgery, theft of services, improper plates.
David G. Seekins, 37, Winslow, burglary, theft by unauthorized taking.
Bryan G. Ross, 26, Owls Head, aggravated criminal mischief.
Richard L. Robinson, Jr., 52, Belfast, gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual touching.
Michael J. Redding, 23, Belfast, negotiating a worthless instrument.
Douglas Noble, Jr., 22, Belfast, burglary, attempted theft, receiving stolen property, possession of burglary tools.
Jesse Newton, 24, Waldo, unlawful possession of marijuana.
Leroy D. Malcolm, Jr., 29, Detroit, receiving stolen property, theft by unauthorized taking, forgery.
Sidney Low III, 43, Winterport, criminal operating under the influence, operating beyond license condition or restriction.
Bengie E. Littlefield, 40, Brooks, operating after revocation.
Jason A. Lenfest, 38, Swanville, operating after revocation, burglary, unauthorized use of property, theft by unauthorized taking.
Alton E. Lane, Jr., 33, Searsport, operating after revocation.
Richard W. Labonville, 55, Troy, theft by unauthorized taking.
Joshua Kaufmann, 26, Unity, operating after revocation, failure to give correct name.
Luke W. Humphrey, 44, Pittsfield, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, violation of conditions of release.
Vernal J. Hood, 27, Montville, criminal operating under the influence, operating beyond license condition or restriction, operating after suspension.
Kelly A. Hall, 28, Rockland, aggravated criminal mischief.
Adam W. Gray, 24, Swanville, burglary, possession of burglary tools, attempted theft.
Colan G. Ginn, 35, Stockton Springs, six counts gross sexual assault, six counts unlawful sexual contact, indecent conduct.
Kevin R. Flagg, 46, Belfast, criminal threatening, domestic violence assault, domestic violence terrorizing, refusing to submit to arrest, obstructing report of crime or injury, assault.
Charles E. Eaton, Jr., 50, Lincolnville, assault.
Aaron J. Dimmitt, 38, Montville, domestic violence assault, criminal mischief.
Amanda Bedard, 25, Winterport, unlawful trafficking in Dilaudid, unlawful trafficking in Oxycodone.
Timothy S. Barnes, 56, Troy, two counts unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, criminal operating under the influence.
Jessica M. Dickel, 35, Newburgh, negotiating a worthless instrument.
Daniel P. Barnes, 24, Jackson, assault on a child, endangering the welfare of a child, domestic violence assault.
James Ryan Witham, 31, Belfast, criminal threatening, domestic violence assault, criminal mischief, ten counts violation of condition of release.
Give us a “thumbs up” Mr. Ford, if you plan to continue growing weed. Yes, thanks for the confirmation.
I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe millions) will be spent on investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and incarserating these four people for a victimless crime? Legalize and tax weed and use the money for the homeless. Take the law enforcement money and go after dealers of bath salts and drugs you can overdose on.
Agreed. A pathetic waste of resources, and a burden to this family. Reefer madness continues.
How ironic that one arm of the State government is prosecuting a family for growing pot for their neighbors, while another arm is licensing a family to grow pot for their neighbors to use as medicine. This is governing at its absolute worst. We need to legalize. I cannot understand why we allow ourselves to be policed this way. It’s time for a revolution if this is the best we can come up with.
Your “irony” comparison between growing it for medicine or for neighbor’s consumption might fall apart if you consider that those neighbors are in another State, making it interstate trafficking.
While I, too, believe it should be legalized and taxed, they weren’t growing just for their neighbors At the size of their operation, it was for the money. There’s nothing altruistic about their intentions.
This act by the government represensts needless interference in private citizens’ lives. Legalize it, tax it and let folks live. Don’t care for pot? Don’t smoke it. (Just for the record, I do not smoke the stuff. Just seems like a waste of resources. The only ones making any money on it is law enforcement. This is government interfering with private enterprise, plain and simple!)
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Doesn’t look like they were doing much harm.. why not go after the people who bring in the heroin and cocaine every day through the maine border. Duh.
Waste of resources if our govt wont change the laws maybe the MDEA agents could have the common sence not to enforce these archaic laws.
Where is the pictures of the “big” operation? The picture only shows about 8 or 12 plants. It doesn’t look like enough to worry about. What a waste of our tax dollars.
The article stated 300 plants were seized. You are right about the arrests being a waste. Pot is illegal because of politics and money, not medical reasons. A major reason was William Randolph Hearst’s forests would have been worth less if hemp was allowed as newspaper pulp, so he lobbied successfully to make marijuana illegal. This preserved the value of his trees. That is why pot was made illegal in 1937. Legalizing pot is long overdue.
Don’t forget DuPont fighting against marijuana because he wanted to sell chemicals to the cotton farmers so they could make the cotton soft enough to use as clothing. Hemp on the other hand only needs to be worked to make it soft. The more it is worked, the softer it gets.
Using it to keep their head above water? Hmmm…interesting. I drove by their house yesterday… they have a tractor, some nice antique automobiles, some snowmobiles and who knows what else. Those assault rifles certainly weren’t cheap. While I don’t disagree that weed should be legalized, I certainly don’t think they were doing it just to keep their heads above water.
Now I know what to do with that botany degree from Doogood Feelwright U.
Imagine the profit potential in setting up growing operations for medicinal purposes.
But will I pay taxes on my income?
I would like to read the entire message that he wrote and sent to the BDN. From the excerpts he seems like an intelligent, compassionate human being who is unfortunately being prosecuted for growing some plants. When will this madness stop? I thought that once all of the people who grew up in the 60s and 70s had a prominent presence in government we would see an end to this ridiculous ban on marijuana but we are still waiting. In an age of bath salts, crack, heroin, etc. marijuana is the least of our worries and not even close to being in the same class. What are the negatives to legalizing marijuana? I can think of plenty of positives: tax revenue, putting drug dealers out of business, drastically reduced court costs, law enforcement resources available for violent crime and domestic assaults. I can keep going but you get my point. If you eliminate a large portion of the funding for drug dealers, gangs will not be able to entice new people to become members and gang problems would be reduced.
I once thought as you do, that once the generation that came of age in the ’60s and ’70s took the reins of power this nonsense would cease. Then Bill Clinton disclosed — gasp — that he had once accepted a toke from a joint but — wait a minute, the future president assured us he never inhaled. That’s when I finally understood that it isn’t a matter of changing generations, that the smarmy two-faced finks are always going to be with us.
I think that anyone who wants to grow some pot for their own use should be able to. If pot became legal there’s no way I’d buy it from a state controlled store. I’d grow my own, or I’d buy it privately. I’m sure that a lot of others would do the same thing. If the government thought they could keep a tight grip on the sale of reefer (and all the tax dollars it would bring) there’s no doubt in my mind that it would have been legalized years ago.
If you are going to grow weed, hide your guns incase you get busted….