Charged all-stars cleared to play Probe into burglary, drug charges continues

MACHIAS – Two Washington County high school students arrested last week on burglary charges will be allowed to play in the McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star game on Saturday.

Jim Ray, president of the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches, said Wednesday that while the association does not condone the alleged behavior of Morgan Drew, 18, of Calais and Sarah Snider, 18, of Milbridge, it has no legal basis to remove them from the All-Star team.

“They were selected by a statewide coaches vote conducted by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches in late January,” Ray said. “There is nothing in our constitution that gives us the power to veto the vote.”

The coaches association co-sponsors the championship game with McDonald’s restaurants.

Meanwhile, administrators in SAD 37 – where Snider is this year’s valedictorian at Narraguagus High School – are reviewing the charges against her, according to Superintendent Richard Curtis.

“MSAD 37’s attorney is in counsel with the MSAD 37 administration to assure that MSAD 37’s policy manual is being followed,” Curtis said in a statement Tuesday. “Once the review has been completed, a decision will follow.”

Snider also is the subject of a Washington County Sheriff’s Department investigation for the alleged illegal importation of prescription narcotics, a Sheriff’s Department officer confirmed Monday. The investigation involves an allegation that Snider illegally brought OxyContin into Maine from Canada through the border at Calais.

Snider and Drew, who is a senior at Calais High School, were arrested March 14 in connection with the March 6 burglary of a home on the Pocomoonshine Lake Road in Princeton.

According to a Maine State Police affidavit on file in 4th District Court in Calais, someone entered the home between 7:30 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. that day and stole electronic equipment, cash and personal items.

Trooper Micah Perkins, who investigated the burglary, was able to obtain a set of tire impressions from the driveway, according to the court document.

Perkins interviewed Drew on March 12 after learning from Baileyville police Officer Justin Leighton that his department was investigating a March 7 incident in which Drew allegedly attempted to cash an already cashed check at the Woodland Food Mart.

Baileyville Police Chief Phillip Harriman said the owner of the $40 check had cashed it at the store Dec. 31. Snider was waiting in a car outside the market when Drew attempted to cash the check, Harriman said.

Baileyville police summoned Drew on March 11 on a charge of attempted theft by deception, the chief said

Perkins said in his affidavit that he interviewed Drew because the check-cashing incident put her in the area of the Princeton burglary and he learned that a Washington County sheriff’s deputy had stopped Snider for speeding on U.S. Route 1 in Princeton on March 6.

Snider and Drew were together and Snider was driving a 1992 Pontiac Grand Am that belongs to Drew’s mother, according to Perkins’ affidavit.

After interviewing Drew, Perkins looked at the Grand Am and saw that the tires were consistent with the tire impressions he had taken from the driveway where the burglary occurred.

Perkins also interviewed Snider about the two students’ activities in Princeton the day of the burglary, and Snider’s statements contradicted those that Drew had given, according to the affidavit.

Perkins and Sgt. Kelly Barbee of the state police interviewed Drew again on March 14 and, based on information from that interview, arrested her and Snider on charges of felony burglary.

Police seized the Grand Am with a search warrant and the car is now at the state police crime lab in Augusta, where the tires will be compared with the impressions that Perkins lifted from the driveway, Barbee said Monday.

Both women were released on cash bail with restrictions that they have no contact with each other with the exception of March 17, 22 and 23. The All-Star banquet takes place Friday and the championship game at Husson College in Bangor is on Saturday.

The women are scheduled to appear in 4th District Court to answer the burglary charges May 7.

Washington County District Attorney Michael Povich said Monday that his office is reviewing the Sheriff’s Department report on Snider’s alleged illegal importation of prescription narcotics.