Jeffrey Linscott, a retired Maine state trooper who pleaded guilty to dealing drugs, will serve a year in prison, a Cumberland County Superior Court justice ruled Monday.

Linscott, of Buxton, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in cocaine. According to documents and statements in court Monday, he was also selling fentanyl, a much more dangerous opioid painkiller that officials have said is responsible for scores of overdose deaths in Maine each year.

Prosecutors and Linscott’s lawyers had agreed that the ex-state trooper would be sentenced to four years with the unsuspended portion of the sentence – the time he would actually serve in prison – capped at 18 months. Johanna Gauvrea, an assistant attorney general, asked Justice Ronald Cole to send Linscott to prison for a year, while Linscott’s lawyers asked for 60 days.

Cole, who called the case “unusual” and “sad,” said that during Linscott’s career as a state trooper, he likely was called to scenes where someone had overdosed on drugs. That, Cole said, should have been enough to keep Linscott from selling dangerous drugs.

Lincsott was arrested in December after selling drugs for the third time in two months to an informant working with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Linscott worked as a state trooper for 22 years and also served in the Army Reserves. He was deployed for a year in Iraq.

Linscott’s state pension of $3,447 a month is not affected by his conviction, his lawyer, Gene Libby, said.

Cole said Linscott, who will also face two years of probation when released from prison, should report to the Cumberland County Jail on July 10, after he sees a doctor about a shoulder ailment that could require surgery. He will be transferred to state prison after turning himself in at the county jail.

As part of his sentence, Linscott will forfeit a pickup truck and $766 in cash that he used during the drug transaction.

This story will be updated.

Copy the Story Link