BANGOR, Maine — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a motion for a new trial filed in August by Malcolm French, convicted last year in federal court of growing marijuana in LaGrange and Township 37.
French’s attorney, Thomas Hallett of Portland, argued in the motion that the LaGrange plot was not actually on land French owned but on adjacent land.
Information in a typewritten anonymous note discovered in March by French’s son, Thomas French, in the truck weighing station in the family business in LaGrange led to the motion, according to Hallett.
“Bolstered by the anonymous note, Mr. French issued a broadside against the government’s case, alleging egregious discovery violations, perjury of law enforcement officers, perjury of a key government witness and prosecutorial misconduct, all of which they claim mandates a new trial,” U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock wrote in his 65-page ruling.
In strong language, Woodcock rejected all of the defense’s arguments.
“The court concludes that Mr. French’s motion must fail because it falls hard on its own weight,” the judge wrote.
Woodcock said that because French’s attorneys did not challenge a witness’ description of where the LaGrange grow was located, they could not “complain about the government hiding information that it supplied [them]” in seeking a new trial.
“Despite the hyperbolic and aggressive rhetoric in Mr. French’s motion,
the court finds no support whatsoever for his claim that law enforcement and the federal prosecutor knew about [the grow referred to in the note] and failed to reveal it. There is, in the court’s view, no basis at all for Mr. French’s accusations of unprofessional conduct against the federal prosecutor and the law enforcement officials who investigated the case. The court firmly and absolutely rejects those false accusations.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey declined to comment on the case. It is the practice of the federal prosecutor’s office not to comment on cases until after sentencings.
Efforts to reach Hallett on Thursday were unsuccessful.
French, 53, of Enfield, Rodney Russell, 51, of South Thomaston and Kendall Chase, 58, of Bradford were found guilty on a variety of charges in connection with the pot farm on Jan. 24, 2014, after a 10-day jury trial. The jury ordered French to forfeit land in LaGrange and Township 37 where it found marijuana had been grown. The men have been held without bail while awaiting sentencing since the verdict was read.
If Woodcock had ordered a new trial, the three men would have been retried together.
A sentencing was set for Sept. 30 but canceled due to the judge’s schedule. It has not been reset.
French and Russell face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life. Each faces a fine of up to $10 million. Chase faces up to life in prison but no mandatory minimum sentence. He faces the same fine as French and Russell.
The time they have been held without bail will be applied to their sentences.