District of Maine

Contact: Donald E. Clark
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced today that the District of Maine collected $2,534,846.68 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal
Year 2013. Of this amount, $1,360,891.94 was collected in criminal actions and $1,173,954.74 was collected in civil actions.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday that the Justice Department collected approximately $8.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept.
30, 2013. The more than $8 billion in collections in FY 2013 represents nearly three times the appropriated $2.76 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

“The department’s enforcement actions help to not only ensure justice is served, but also deliver a valuable return to the American people,” said Attorney General Holder. “It is critical that Congress provide the resources necessary to match the department’s mounting caseload. As these figures show, supporting our federal prosecutors is a sound investment.”

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime
Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the
United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws. In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the District of Maine, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $462,493 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013. Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

Contact: Craig M. Wolff
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that
Nicholas Alexander, 23, of Dresden, Maine, was sentenced today in United States District Court by Judge George Z. Singal to 28 months imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, for conspiring to rob a Walgreens pharmacy in Bath. Alexander pleaded guilty to the charge on September 24, 2013.

According to court records, Alexander and other individuals participated in the June 14, 2013 robbery of the Bath Walgreens. Alexander handed a note to a pharmacist that read, "You have 20 seconds to give me all your Oxycodone 15mg tablets and 30s or I will blow your
[expletive] brains out." As a result, Alexander was given a bag containing 11 bottles of
Oxycodone tablets. Alexander was later found at a motel in Wiscasset, where investigators found almost 600 Oxycodone tablets. In a subsequent interview, Alexander admitted robbing the store, using some of the stolen tablets, and selling others.

The investigation was conducted by the Bath Police Department, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.
United States Attorney Delahanty praised the cooperative actions of the local, county, state and federal agencies. "The United States Attorney's Office has put a special emphasis on the investigation and prosecution of pharmacy robberies in the State of Maine. I am pleased that the cooperative effort of law enforcement at all levels resulted in the successful conclusion of this case."

Contact: Darcie N. McElwee
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: The United States Attorney’s Office announced that Benjamin Lee, 52, of Springfield, Missouri, was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to
100 months in prison for interstate stalking. Lee was found guilty of the charges on September
17, 2013, following a jury trial.

According to testimony presented at the five-day trial, Lee traveled across state lines from Missouri to Maine with the intention of killing, injuring, harassing and surveilling his then- estranged wife and her new boyfriend, placing them both in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury.

The evidence showed that between April and May 2012 Lee sent several threatening e- mails; and later communicated verbal threats to kill the couple in Maine when speaking to his friends and family between July and September 2012. On September 6, 2012, the couple received a call from Lee’s sister who had not heard from him and believed he may be traveling to Maine to cause the couple harm. Lee arrived outside the couple’s Limerick, Maine home at dusk on September 7, 2012 resulting in a series of 911 calls reporting that Lee was presently driving past their house in a white Cadillac and may have a gun.

A short time later, Maine State Police troopers conducted a search of the white Cadillac
Lee was operating about four miles from the couple’s home and located, among other items, five firearms, three of which were loaded, over 200 rounds of ammunition, a machete, duct tape, rope, a roll of plastic sheeting, trash bags, an empty 10 gallon cooler and handcuffs.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Maine State
Police and the York County Sheriff’s Office.