BANGOR, Maine — A man who has spent more than three years in the custody of the Penobscot County Jail while the U.S. attorney’s office awaited the results of an investigation pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to one count of making fraudulent statements to obtain Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.
Clifford John Sprague, 37, of Exeter also waived indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of being an accessory after the fact to a March 10, 2012, pharmacy robbery in Guilford.
Michael Thompson, 27, of Levant was sentenced in June to six years and 10 months in federal prison for robbing a Guilford pharmacy at knifepoint, then fleeing in a mail truck.
“After the robbery, Thompson called Sprague, told him that he had robbed the pharmacy and asked Sprague to pick him up in his car,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release issued Wednesday. “Sprague did so. Shortly after picking up Thompson, Sprague saw a Somerset County Sheriff’s Office vehicle. Sprague slowed down his vehicle and told Thompson he needed to get out.”
Thompson fled into the woods but left some of the stolen narcotics behind, according to court documents. Sprague used and sold some of them.
Later, Thompson fled to Florida but was arrested in 2014, when he returned to Maine, according to a previously published report. He is incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate locator website.
By pleading guilty to the fraud charge, Sprague admitted that he fraudulently received nearly $13,000 in disability benefits between March 2011 and March 2012 for himself and his three dependent children. He also had Rosemary Peterson, 29, of Bangor tell Social Security employees that Sprague did not work outside the home and required someone to clean, bathe, dress and cook for him, according to court documents.
That was not true, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Sprague did a significant amount of work outside the house including working as a scrap metal dealer, carpenter and woodcutter.
Peterson pleaded guilty in May to the same fraud charge Sprague did. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November in federal court in Bangor.
Sprague has been held without bail on state charges since June 2012 for his role in a smash-and-grab burglary at a Corinth store. He pleaded no contest in March 2013 to arson, burglary, aggravated criminal mischief and theft for his role in the A.E. Robinson break-in and has been awaiting sentencing for those crimes.
His sentencing agreement with the Penobscot County district attorney’s office calls for him to be sentenced on the state charges after he is sentenced for the federal crimes.
Sentencing dates have not been set in state or federal court.
Sprague and Peterson face up to five years in federal prison on the fraud count. Sprague faces up to 10 years in federal prison for assisting Thompson after the pharmacy robbery. On each count, the defendants face a fine of up to $250,000.
On the state charges, his plea agreement calls for the prosecution to recommend a sentence of 12 years. His attorney will be free to argue for a lesser sentence.