PARIS — A Mexico man pleaded guilty Thursday to selling prescription painkillers to an undercover officer last year.
Charles S. Cogley, 33, was sentenced in Oxford County Superior Court to two years in prison with all but 30 days suspended and two years of probation to trafficking in oxycodone.
Cogley was arrested in June on a charge of aggravated drug-trafficking. Maine Drug Enforcement Agency investigators said Cogley, along with Christoper Burgess, 23, of Mexico and Henry Ross, 36, of Rumford, were trafficking oxycodone and other drugs in the Mexico area.
Cogley’s charge was originally aggravated because the transaction occurred at his home at 97 Middle St. in Mexico, which is within 1,000 feet of the Hosmer Field Athletic Complex, a designated drug-free “safe zone.”
As Cogley’s attorney Christoper Berryment pointed out in a motion to change the charge, the Swift River runs between the field complex and Cogley’s home, making direct travel between the two “at the very least, impractical and improbable.”
Using the shortest route, travel between the field and home is almost a full mile, Berryment said. He argued that the circumstances of the case did not fit with the intention for aggravating factors as envisioned by the Legislature when it wrote the aggravated trafficking law.
Although Berryment’s motion was never granted, Cogley’s charge was amended to remove the aggravating factor in a motion filed by Assistant Attorney General David Fisher and granted in December.
In a June 6 arrest affidavit, MDEA agent Tony Milligan said an investigation into the group began in the fall of 2012, and an undercover MDEA agent successfully infiltrated the group. Ross is named as the group’s supplier in the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the agent met with Burgess on Oct. 31 and was taken to Cogley’s home in Mexico to purchase oxycodone. Burgess agreed to facilitate the transaction with the two other men, Milligan said. The meeting was visually and electronically monitored and audio recorded by investigators, Milligan said.
During the transaction, the undercover agent told Burgess how much oxycodone he wanted, and Burgess walked over to Cogley and Ross to make the order. Cogley asked for money for the drugs directly from the agent, according to Milligan’s affidavit.
According to Milligan, Cogley brought the money to Ross, who retrieved the drugs and gave them to Burgess, who handed them to the agent.
Milligan said the drugs later tested positive as oxycodone. Burgess was arrested in May and confessed to his involvement in trafficking the drugs, Milligan said.
According to court records, Burgess pleaded guilty to trafficking charges in January and was given a three-year prison sentence with all but 90 days suspended and two years of probation.
The state’s case against Ross is still pending, according to court clerks.
pmcguire@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
