BANGOR, Maine — The patriarch of a Waldo County family accused of running a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in a Monroe garage was scheduled Wednesday to plead guilty to federal drug charges.
But James F. Ford’s hearing was continued because evidence in his 2004 conviction on a marijuana-manufacturing charge in Middlesex County Superior Court in Massachusetts may have been tested by a chemist accused of failing to follow protocols and deliberately mishandling samples in a now closed Massachusetts lab.
The Associated Press has reported that chemist Annie Dookhan was involved in testing more than 60,000 drug samples involving about 34,000 defendants during her nine-year tenure at the lab. Dookhan resigned in March during an internal investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which ran the lab until July 1, when it was taken over as part of a budget directive, the AP said in September.
U.S District Judge John Woodcock on Wednesday granted a motion made by Ford’s attorney, Charles Hodsdon II of Bangor, to continue the hearing.
The U.S. attorney’s office did not oppose the motion.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark said Friday that it was the first case he was aware of in Maine that might be affected by the Massachusetts drug lab scandal.
Ford is charged with conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants, manufacturing 100 or more marijuana plants, maintaining a drug involved place and being felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He and family members allegedly ran the growing operation from 2006 until Nov. 11, 2011, when it was raided by local law enforcement officials, according to court documents. The growing operation appeared to be the family’s sole source of income.
Police seized 21 root balls of harvested marijuana plants, 211 live marijuana plants and more than five pounds of harvested marijuana along with calendars that documented harvest dates and payment records, according to court documents.
Ford remains free on $20,000 unsecured bail.
If Ford’s prior conviction were to be set aside, he would face a mandatory minimum of five rather 10 years in federal prison on the conspiracy and manufacturing charges. The maximum sentence would be 40 years rather than life.
Another member of the Waldo County family did plead guilty Wednesday to federal drug charges.
James T. Ford, 35, of Monroe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants, manufacturing 100 or more marijuana plants and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Woodcock ordered that he be held without bail while awaiting sentencing, as required by law.
A sentencing date has not been set.
James T. Ford had been free on $5,000 unsecured bail.
He faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 40 years in prison on the drug charges and a fine of up to $5 million. On the gun charge, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Also charged in the case are family matriarch Darlene Ford, 57, of Monroe, and a second son, Paul Ford, 32, of Swanville.
She is charged with maintaining a drug involved place and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is charged with conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants and two counts of manufacturing 100 or more marijuana plants.
If convicted, Darlene Ford faces up to faces up to 20 years in prison on the drug charge while her younger son faces between five and 40 years in prison on the marijuana charges. Both face up to 10 years in prison on the gun charges.
Both are free on unsecured bail.
– The family’s charges were dismissed in state court and taken up in federal court, because Maine law does not permit property seizures for drug cases but Federal law does.
– The “felon in possession” charges are all because of previous marijuana-related charges in the family.
– James F. Ford wrote a letter complimenting the professionalism of the DEA during the raid of his property. That alone shows compassion, let alone the fact that this family grow what most of the world considers medicine.
– The family now faces steep mandatory minimums because of greed over justice. When taking in all the factors, I see their worst crime against the state as tax evasion, and that could be fixed quite easily, couldn’t it?.. *cough cough*
Death and taxes.
Mainers : taxed to death
Good question might be: seize what? Those mandatory minimums do nothing but crowd up the prisons — but the Prison Industrial Complex is just fine with all that. Build a concrete warehouse, staff it with low-wage non-union dummies, fill it with warm bodies and back charge each state $200 per day per man. Not a study in the world says mandatory minimum sentences deter anything.
Growing pot, hmm, better than food stamps and a couple hundred a month to survive on. Damned sure not going to find a job that pays all the bills…
“….Maine law does not permit property seizures for drug cases but Federal law does.”
Maine’s forfeiture laws do not allow real estate seizures for cannabis crimes. Other property can be seized for cannabis crimes.
This man has done no thing wrong.
Total horse crap we will be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to punish a whole family for a victimless crime.I am positive legalization is but a few years away at most and the po po can’t find anything better to do than victimize good hard working folks .I don’t even know these folks but my heart goes out to them.
America, the land of the free. I do think we have the most moronic Congress, Senate, we in America all suffering, for lack of leadership, lack of the ability to change, move forward, we jail the innocent, let the real criminals take residents in Washington.