Ex-UMS trustee faces drug charges Former UMFK student has August court date

FORT KENT – Former University of Maine at Fort Kent student and University of Maine System board of trustees student member Chad Marquis has been charged with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs and is expected to appear in court next month.

Marquis, a Fort Kent resident who is in his early 30s, was arrested May 23, according to a bail bond filed at Maine Superior Court in Caribou. Few details are available in the case, and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency declined to comment Tuesday saying the case had been turned over to federal law enforcement officials.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges had been filed in federal court against Marquis.

The MDEA referred phone calls on Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston. Those calls weren’t returned.

The bail bond lists the crime as a Class A felony, which means Marquis could face up to a $50,000 fine and 30 years in prison.

Reasons to classify a crime as a Class A felony include, a prior drug trafficking record or possession of large amounts of drugs. The charge also could stem from the combination of possessing a firearm and drugs.

Marquis is scheduled to appear Aug. 17 at Maine Superior Court in Caribou.

He has no lawyer listed on the document and Maine Assistant District Attorney Catherine Francke said Tuesday she had no record of the charges.

“I don’t even have him in our system,” Francke said. “That simply means the report hasn’t been filed and we haven’t been able to review it yet.”

Marquis, who was appointed by Gov. John Baldacci in April 2005 to serve as a voting student member of the UMS board of trustees, resigned from the position in June.

Baldacci’s spokesman David Farmer provided copies of Marquis’ June 13 resignation letter, stating that he would need to end his term Sept. 15, 2007, “due to other obligations that have arisen from my new career in business and other pressing family matters.”

Marquis also stated he no longer was a university student, which is a requirement to serve on the board.

Baldacci accepted the resignation in a letter dated June 29, that was addressed to Marquis.

Board members oversee and govern the system, but aren’t paid for their service.

Informally, student members tend to rotate among the seven UMS campuses, but are formally nominated by an official at the university campus that they attend.

Farmer said he’s unsure when a new student member will be appointed, saying that the recommendation must first be brought to the state’s Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.

“During his time on the board, Mr. Marquis was a thoughtful and attentive trustee,” Chancellor Richard Pattenaude said Tuesday in a prepared statement. “We were sorry to hear of this news.”