Charges dropped against grandmother Rogers, 64, arrested in connection with grandson’s drug trafficking operation

BANGOR – Drug trafficking charges against the grandmother of a man sentenced to 13 years in prison for burying 8 pounds of cocaine in her pool shed have been dismissed.

Jeanne E. Rogers, 64, of Corinna was arrested on Oct. 7 in connection with the drug trafficking operation of her grandson, Jason R. Belmer, 26, of Corinna.

Belmer eluded police for six weeks in Maine, Colorado and Kansas before his arrest on Oct. 4 in Pittsfield.

Rogers pleaded not guilty to the charge in November in Penobscot County Superior Court. She was scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

William Savage, the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case, recommended last month that the charges be dropped in a letter filed with the court.

“The defendant has demonstrated that she made poor choices under duress,” Savage wrote. “She has participated in counseling and community service at the request of the state. No further prosecution is warranted.”

Details about Rogers’ involvement in her grandson’s drug operation were never made public. Efforts Tuesday to reach Rogers’ attorney Brad Macdonald of Bangor were unsuccessful.

Belmer was sentenced in October to 13 years in prison after waiving indictment and pleading guilty to aggravated trafficking in cocaine, criminal restraint, burglary of a motor vehicle and refusing to submit to arrest.

The woman, with whom he fled the state, was sentenced last year to time served. Michelle Carmack, 28, of Haverhill, Mass., was sentenced on Nov. 8 to 45 days in jail on charges of conspiracy to trafficking in cocaine and hindering apprehension.

Carmack and Belmer were stopped on Sept. 4 for speeding on Interstate 70 in Burlington, Colo., a few miles over the Kansas border. Carmack was arrested, but Belmer disappeared by running into a cornfield.