A Maine man convicted of conspiring to distribute marijuana in a multimillion-dollar ring wants a new trial.
A jury convicted Lucas Sirois of eight felony counts on Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor. He was in charge of a large marijuana grow operation in Farmington and Avon, according to court testimony.
He asked Friday for a new trial on the five counts related to marijuana: conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and three counts of maintaining a drug-involved premises.
Sirois wants a new trial because the verdict was a “miscarriage of justice,” the court filing said. A judge can weigh the evidence and evaluate credibility to then decide to grant a new trial, the request said.
“Allowing this verdict to stand would be unjust,” the request said.
During the same trial, Sirois’ father, Robert Sirois, was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and not guilty of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
Their guilty verdicts were the last in a wide-spread conspiracy to sell pot illegally in Maine that ultimately led to charges against 13 people in 2021. A local selectman, an assistant district attorney and two former Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputies eventually pleaded guilty to felonies as part of the scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office will file a response about why the judge should deny the request for a new trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Lizotte said.
“The jury’s verdict was just and fully supported by the evidence,” Lizotte said.
Sirois’ attorneys argued during the trial and in the request for a new trial that the federal government’s testing was not accurate and failed to catch the distinction between hemp and marijuana.
Multiple people who had pleaded guilty testified during the trial. Lucas Sirois’ defense argued during the four-day trial that he was growing hemp, not marijuana. The U.S. Attorney’s Office called that “revisionist history.”
The request for a new trial does not include Sirois’ convictions for tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service.
Sentencing is not yet scheduled for Lucas Sirois. Robert Sirois has not filed a request for a new trial.