ELLSWORTH – A Sullivan man with a drug conviction has been found competent to stand trial on new drug charges.

Bert E. “Sonny” Sinclair’s defense attorney argued in court last week that Sinclair should be found incompetent to stand trial because of a head injury he suffered in a 1986 car accident and because Sinclair has learning disabilities and a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Superior Court Justice William Brodrick decided last week, however, that Sinclair, 48, has demonstrated he is competent to stand trial, despite what he has tried to get mental experts to believe.

Brodrick, in his ruling, referred to a May 2003 incident in which a Hancock County deputy charged Sinclair with driving to endanger. Sinclair, the judge wrote, talked to the deputy and tried to convince the officer to summon him instead on a lesser charge of imprudent speed.

“[H]e not only understood the plea bargaining process, he knew the appropriate charge,” Brodrick wrote. “This kind of conduct is in complete contrast with the characteristics he presented to the doctors in the various interviews.”

At a Sept. 8 competency hearing for Sinclair, four mental health experts testified about interviews they have had with Sinclair and subsequent assessments they made of his state of mind. Two of the doctors indicated that they believed Sinclair was incompetent to stand trial, but two others told the judge they thought it likely that Sinclair was malingering, or pretending to be more afflicted than he really is.

“It is clear to me that Mr. Sinclair is greatly exaggerating his symptoms in order to avoid standing trial,” Brodrick wrote.

Sinclair’s attorney, Laurence Willey of Bangor, declined to comment on the judge’s decision. He said that he is consulting with Sinclair’s doctors about what steps they should take next and that he is unsure when his client may stand trial.

District Attorney Michael Povich said Thursday he agrees with the judge’s decision.

“I don’t have any quarrel with the result,” he said.

Sinclair was convicted in 1988 in Hancock County of trafficking in cocaine and lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, according to court documents.

He is charged with selling five heroin packets and 16 prescription Percocet pills in May 2003 and with selling a prescription oxycodone pill in August 2002, each time out of his Higg Street home. He also faces charges of driving to endanger and possession of cocaine, according to court documents.

Last month, Sinclair was arrested in Ellsworth on more drug charges after he allegedly was found with 119 Valium pills and other drugs in his pocket when police stopped a truck in which he was riding on Route 1A.