Trenton man sentenced

BANGOR – A Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a Trenton man considered to be a major drug dealer in Hancock County to a three-year suspended sentence on burglary, theft and drug charges.

Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead ordered that Darrell W. Dolliver, 34, of Trenton serve his state sentence at the same time he is incarcerated in federal prison on gun and drug charges. Dolliver was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court to 12 1/2 years in federal prison.

“I guess it’s fair to conclude that Mr. Dolliver has been involved in some fairly significant ongoing criminal activity,” Mead said Wednesday in handing down the sentence in Penobscot County Superior Court. “He’s just received a federal sentence that goes a long way and then some to address that. I guess it makes sense that the state not throw our resources after it.”

The state sentence worked out in a plea agreement between Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich and defense attorney Frank Cassidy of Machias would allow Dolliver to get credit on his federal sentence for some of the 2 1/2 years he has been held at the Hancock County Jail awaiting the outcome of the cases in state and federal court.

“We’re happy to have this bunch of cases finally resolved,” Povich said after the hearing.

Dolliver pleaded guilty Wednesday to state felony charges stemming from three separate incidents in Hancock County that included bail violations. Several misdemeanor charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Dressed in the same wool sport coat, white shirt and tie he wore in federal court on Monday, Dolliver did not address Mead on Wednesday. Dolliver, however, told U.S. District Judge John Woodcock that he had participated in a drug treatment program and had been baptized while incarcerated.

“I apologize for any and all wrongdoing I’ve done in the past,” he said Monday in federal court. “I have a good start on my sobriety. I have a lot to give and think I can help others. … I don’t feel a real long prison sentence is how I should be punished.”

When he was arrested in 2003, Hancock County Sheriff William Clark compared Dolliver’s alleged drug ring to a “pawn shop” type of operation.

In federal court last year, Dolliver admitted that between April and September 2003 from a storage facility in Ellsworth he traded drugs, including heroin, for 17 legally and illegally obtained guns and household and electronic items.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Dolliver agreed to forfeit to the state $1,333 in cash and the items that police seized at his two Ellsworth self-storage facilities. They are expected to be auctioned off to pay the $3,700 in back rental fees.

Among the items police recovered were a church piano, a silver Communion tray, two all-terrain vehicles, five plastic storage bins full of sports trading cards, televisions, sporting equipment, an antique work bench, an air conditioner and a stuffed duck.

An estimated 10 computer systems, a church-owned snowblower, a snowmobile and several new power tools also were seized in the storage facility searches, according to police.