A retired Maine State Police trooper accused of selling drugs made his initial court appearance Thursday.
Jeffrey Linscott, 51, did not enter a plea at the brief hearing in Cumberland County Court. He is charged with trafficking in fentanyl and cocaine, aggravated trafficking in fentanyl and possession of fentanyl.
Bail was continued at the $50,000 cash he posted the day after his arrest in Gorham on Dec. 20, when he allegedly sold drugs to an informant in the parking lot of a grocery store.
The felony charges against Linscott will have to be presented to a grand jury. Prosecutors also filed documents saying they intend to seize $766 and a pickup truck from Linscott. They allege that the cash and the truck were involved in the alleged drug sale in Gorham. Two of the charges he faces are in connection with that alleged sale and two are related to an alleged drug transaction in Windham in October.
Linscott and his lawyer, Tyler Smith, did not comment on the case after the hearing.
Linscott became concerned that he was being investigated before his arrest, according to an affidavit filed by an agent of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. On the night he was arrested, Linscott met first with the informant in the parking lot of a convenience store in Gorham and asked the man to lift his shirt to make sure that he wasn’t wearing a wire, the affidavit said.
He then told the informant to meet again at a different location, and the informant told MDEA agents monitoring the alleged transaction about the new location by cellphone while driving to the spot where Linscott told him they would make the exchange.
Linscott retired as a trooper in 2010 after he was credited with 25 years of service, which included some time spent in the military.
He has been working as a truck driver since his retirement and also earns a state pension of $3,447 a month, according to information provided to the Press Herald by the Maine Public Employees Retirement System under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:
emurphy@pressherald.com
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