BANGOR, Maine — A federal judge on Thursday is expected to sentence three men convicted of running a sophisticated outdoor marijuana growing operation in Washington County, more than 6½ years after the pot plantation was raided.
Malcolm French 54, of Enfield, Rodney Russell, 52, of South Thomaston and Kendall Chase, 59, of Bradford were found guilty on a variety of charges in connection with the pot farm, located in Township 37, on Jan. 24, 2014, after a 10-day jury trial.
In addition to convicting the men on a variety of charges, the jury found Haynes Timberland Inc., the firm that owns the land where the farm was located, guilty of maintaining a drug-involved place.
The sentencings Thursday will bring to an end a legal saga that began Sept. 22, 2009, when state and federal law enforcement officers raided the plantation and seized nearly 3,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value between $6 million and $9 million. Undocumented workers lived at the remote site accessible only by dirt roads off the Stud Mill Road several miles north of Route 9. As it was raided, the workers set fire to the site and fled.
The trio was scheduled to be sentenced along with Haynes Timberland by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock on Feb. 10, 2015. Woodcock delayed the men’s sentencing but fined the firm that owned the land where it was located $100,000.
In addition to imposing the fine in February on Haynes Timberland, now owned by French’s wife, Barbara French of Enfield, Woodcock gave final approval to a deal that allows the firm to retain ownership of the 22,000 acres that makes up all of Township 37 in exchange for $1.55 million. The money has been in a government escrow account for about 22 months, according to court documents.
Jurors ordered that the land be forfeited to the government after reaching its verdict. Two other properties — a hunting camp in LaGrange and a warehouse complex in Township 31 — will be forfeited as the jury decided. The $100,000 fine was paid the day it was imposed.
Malcolm French and Russell face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. Chase did not because the jury did not find he was responsible for as many marijuana plants as the other defendants.
Earlier this month, Woodcock determined that under the federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentences for French and Russell was between 12 years and seven months and 15 years and eight months. For Chase, the recommended guideline range was 6½ to 8 years and one month in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey urged Woodcock to sentence French and Russell to 15 years and eight months each and Chase to seven years and three months. The federal prosecutor also recommended French be ordered to pay a $300,000 fine and Chase be ordered to pay a $20,000 fine because they have considerable assets and Russell does not.
Attorneys for French and Russell argued that the facts of the case called for a 10-year sentence for each man. Chase’s lawyer is expected to make his presentation on Thursday afternoon.
French, Chase and Russell have been held without bail since their convictions, most recently at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison. That time will be applied to their federal prison sentences.
Their co-defendant, Robert Berg, 52, of Corinna, pleaded guilty Jan. 7, 2014, shortly before the trio’s trial began, to being an accessory after the fact to manufacturing 1,000 or more marijuana plants.
By pleading guilty, Berg admitted he knew about the pot plantation and that police had raided it Sept. 22, 2009, forcing workers to flee. The next day, a longtime friend asked Berg to pick up the undocumented workers in the woods in Washington County, according to the prosecution version of events to which he pleaded guilty.
He was sentenced to six months in prison followed by a year of supervised release. Berg, who was released from the federal prison camp in Ayers, Massachusetts, on April 8, 2015, also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
In a separate case, Berg admitted on June 23, 2014, that his custom screen printing and embroidery company created fake logos of sports teams, a distillery, a tractor company and a motorcycle manufacturer.
Robert Berg Enterprises Inc. had been under investigation for trafficking in counterfeit goods, money laundering and tax evasion for more than three years, according to court documents.
Berg did not face prison time on those charges.
Moises Soto, 55, of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, the man who recruited the undocumented workers who worked and lived on the plantation, is due to be released Sept. 7 from a federal re-entry facility in San Antonio, Texas. Soto, who testified against French, Chase and Russell, pleaded guilty in July 2013 to a drug conspiracy charge and one count of harboring illegal aliens.
He was sentenced to four years in prison, some of which was served while he was being held without bail after his arrest in March 2013.