ROCKLAND, Maine — A Superior Court judge has rejected the effort of an Appleton man to get a full hearing to challenge a search warrant that led to his arrest on felony marijuana trafficking charges.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm issued an order last week in Knox County Superior Court that denies the request by 35-year-old Christian “Will” Neils for a full “Frank” hearing. A Frank hearing would have allowed Neils to challenge the warrant that was used on Sept. 21, 2010, to search his property. As a result of evidence found during that search, Neils was charged with aggravated trafficking and felony possession of more than one pound of marijuana.
Justice Hejlm ruled that the defense did not provide sufficient evidence to warrant a full hearing. A brief hearing was held March 28 in which Neils’ attorney Leonard Sharon of Auburn attempted to convince the judge that a full hearing should be granted to show that Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agent Kirk Guerrette was not a credible witness and that this should ultimately lead to the search warrant being voided.
Hjelm, however, disagreed in his order. He said the only evidence provided were affidavits filed by Sharon that refer to claims by others about Guerrette and his alleged excessive use of the sleep aid Ambien. The judge ruled that some of the information in Sharon’s filings were about Guerrette’s alleged Ambien use at a time that had no bearing on the September 2010 search.
“Other information is little more than ruminations. Some information was not relevant,” Hjelm stated in his order.
A telephone message was left for Sharon on Monday morning. No call has yet been returned.
Sharon had claimed that Guerrette used a 90-day supply of Ambien (360 pills) in 12 days.
The allegation of Guerrette’s use of Ambien was used more than a year ago by several attorneys representing 44 drug defendants to obtain records of the Healthcare Crimes Unit within the Maine Attorney General’s Office in an effort to attack the agent’s credibility. The attorney had said that the Healthcare Unit was investigating prescription practices by pharmacies in Maine and that part of that investigation led to information about Guerrette.
Guerrette had worked as an agent for MDEA, assigned from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, until December 2010. At that time he returned to the sheriff’s office and Sheriff Donna Dennison promoted him to lieutenant.
Guerrette said after the March hearing that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing. He said that all but three of the 44 criminal cases have been resolved. Neils’ case is one of those still pending in court.
360 pills in 12 days would not affect Guerrette’s judgement? When is illegal actions by police going to be taken to court by the Disrtict Attorney?
Illegal actions by police or politicians in the state of Maine…..NEVER…count on it.
Couldn’t affect his judgement to bad….he was right! :)
Alledged drug use. Key word that works both ways. Because if a defense attorney claims something it must be true…
Right you are OIFvet. He could just as easily been reselling the pills on the black market for profit.
Where the heck is “the LAW is the LAW, blah, blah, blah” crowd when authorities decide to break the law and violate their Oath? Up in the peanut gallery cheering that lawbreaking like the hypocritical partisan hacks that they are is where.
Just curious, but shouldn’t your reply have been addressed to Millicent and not OIFvet?
That would have been a good trick, considering that I hadn’t yet read Millicent’s post when I responded to OIFvet. It was OIFvet who was the one spouting the standard issue nonsense that anyone wearing a badge can do no wrong.
Whoops! sorry Missed the timeline, only went with the order of comments. :(
3rd party allegations, being either offered by affadavit or in-court testimony, are heresay and Sharon knows that. If Sharon has someone that has 1st hand, actual eyewitness testimony, then that’s a different matter. But so far all Sharon has is allegations that are being recycled and 3rd hand statement’s that are unsupported by any direct evidence. It’s gonna take a lot more actual physical evidence of drug use (and that is drug’s not perscribed by a physician) than these allegations to get Sharon where he wants to go. And given what his client was found with, and I’m sure other supporting evidence that was found, Sharon might as well admit that his client is on his way to Warren or DownEast.
You are correct, it is heresay. However, the rules for a “Frank” hearing are different than a criminal case, in front of a jury. I agree with you, he’s probably guilty and needs to be punished and Sharon would do well to go after a plea agreement.
However, the agent’s legal and professional actions and future and past testimony’s only offer not only this defendant, but others as well, an opportunity for appeals. Lastly, a defense attorney should never admit his client’s guilt……if he or she did, then they need another line of work.
The bottom line, I think, is that this agent needs to go, and quickly before any further legal actions can be taken. The state does pay for these proceedings, and his salary.
Fine, then the State Police and the Professional Standards folk’s need to get into this, along with Sheriff Denison since he’s back in the Sheriff’s Office. But to say just ‘need’s to go’ without any Due Process is nonsense and may very well be a subject of litigation that’s gonna go no where, all on the say so of a convicted drug dealer that’s trying to stay outta jail by smearing the reputation of the cop that caught him dirtier than sin ! Been there, had to go thru it and looked at the monster dead in the eye. Not a nice thing to do but very necessary if society is to keep the bad guy’s in check.
360 Ambien tablets in 12 days? He would have slept for at least 3 weeks.
my guess is he wasn’t taking them…but probably selling them.
Couldn’t of affected the cops judgement (thoughts) too much…he was right :)
It sounds like a big waste of time to me. How much are going to spend on this guy? Who was he bothering? Don’t we have enough real crime in this State to keep the police busy?