Former Bates professor to be sentenced in crack cocaine case

LEWISTON – Sentencing is scheduled for Monday for a former Bates College professor who pleaded guilty last summer to conspiracy to possess crack cocaine with the intent to distribute the drug throughout central Maine.

Linda Williams, a former tenured music professor at the Lewiston college, faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and up to $1 million in fines for the conviction.

In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped two counts of distributing crack against the 51-year-old former professor.

The sentencing hearing will take place in U.S. District Court in Portland. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Toof said it’s likely that Williams will get less than 10 years because she doesn’t have a previous criminal record.

Investigators said Williams befriended three Jamaican men who were part of a local cocaine network. Starting in June 2002, she allowed the men to live in her house, cook crack cocaine on her stove and use her home as a base for their drug business.

In addition to keeping drugs at her house, Williams conducted drug deals while the men were away and allowed people to use her car for cocaine runs, investigators charged.

Drug agents sent informants wearing body wires to Williams’ home last spring to record drug transactions, and police raided her house on April 11 after learning she was about to conduct a $1,000 cocaine deal.

Two men involved in the drug ring were convicted in January after a six-day trial.

Williams received her doctorate from Indiana University and has a background in the study of African-American music. Williams was making preparations to travel to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship when she was arrested in April.