ELLSWORTH, Maine — A prominent local businessman appeared in court Thursday morning to plead no contest to a charge of misdemeanor drug possession.
Patrick C. Jordan, 44, entered the plea having successfully completed the terms of his deferred disposition that were imposed upon him a year ago in Hancock County Superior Court. The charge stemmed from a June 2012 incident in which Jordan was accused of purchasing thousands of dollars worth of prescription pills from a local woman in the parking lot of an Ellsworth motel.
On Thursday, as a result of the completed deferred disposition, a felony drug possession charge against Jordan was reduced to a misdemeanor drug possession charge. Jordan pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to serve five days in jail, which he already has done, and to pay a $1,000 fine.
Jordan declined to address the court when offered the chance to do so by Justice Ann Murray.
Jordan’s lawyer, Glen Porter, said that in the past year, his client has not used or possessed drugs and has stayed out of legal trouble.
“I think it is a good resolution for the community and for Mr. Jordan,” Porter said after the proceeding.
Assistant Attorney General Patrick Larson, the prosecutor in the case, declined afterward to comment on Jordan’s case.
Outside the courtroom, Jordan also declined to comment on his case, other than to say “I’m glad it’s over.”
Jordan, president and CEO of local construction firm R.F. Jordan & Sons, was arrested June 20, 2012, after officers with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency witnessed a drug transaction in the parking lot of a High Street motel.
Police stopped Jordan’s truck as he was driving away and found inside the vehicle 87 30-milligram oxycodone tablets, which officials said were worth $3,500 on the street. Police also seized $4,495 in cash that they found in the truck, which they believed was proceeds from the sale of drugs, they said at the time.
Jordan initially was charged with drug trafficking, but that was later reduced to felony drug possession. The woman who sold him the drugs, Ellsworth resident Julie Edwards, later was convicted of drug possession and sentenced to serve 30 days behind bars and two subsequent years of probation.
Jordan, who has no prior criminal record, has been a well-respected member of Ellsworth’s business community for several years. At the time of his arrest, he was president of the board of directors at the local YMCA, but he resigned from the board a week later. Under his leadership, R.F. Jordan & Sons received the Top Drawer Award from the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce in 2006. In 2009, Jordan and his wife gave $100,000 to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth to put toward construction of its new emergency care facility.
