Charges issued for pot cookies

CAPE ELIZABETH — Three arrests and seven summonses have been made in connection with a Dec. 7 incident involving marijuana cookies sold at Cape Elizabeth High School.

The charges involve boys age 15 to 17, as well as one 18-year-old senior, Samuel Sherman. All are Cape residents, except one of the 16-year-olds, who lives in South Portland.

The three arrested – two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old – are alleged to have provided the cookies, according to Capt. Brent Sinclair of the Cape Elizabeth Police Department. All three were arrested at the police station Dec. 19 and released to their parents, said Sinclair. They are accused of aggravated trafficking of a scheduled drug, an elevated charge given that the incident took place inside a public school.

According Sinclair, no other charges are expected as a result of the investigation. Nine students were suspended from school immediately following the incident and Police Chief Neil Williams later said as many as a dozen may have been involved.

“Based on the information we have right now, this is it,” said Sinclair. “If we get additional information, then we’ll follow up on it.”

Sinclair said the three students arrested are believed to have distributed the cookies, while those summonsed only ate them. Some, he said, purchased the cookies and all knew what they were buying.

“We don’t have any information that they did not know it,” said Sinclair, adding that the cookies are not believed to have contained any illicit additives other than marijuana even though some students reported to the nurse’s office at the high school after eating them.

“We tested them here and they tested positive for THC, or marijuana,” said Sinclair. “They will be taken to the state lab to be tested further but we don’t have any information to suggest anything in them other than marijuana.”

Sinclair declined to say whether the students charged with trafficking received the cookies from a source or baked them on their own. Those details, he said, would have to come from the District Attorney’s Office. Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dassatti, who is handling the case for the county’s juvenile justice division, was not available for questions.

Sinclair said there is “nothing really I can disclose,” on his department’s efforts to track where the Cape boys obtained the marijuana.

The cookie incident happened during a daylong TEDx video conference event at the high school. Principal Jeffrey Shedd did not return a call by deadline, but did say in a letter to parents that "the choices of this small number of students, while unfortunate, help remind us of the value of events, such as TEDx day, that call us to big ideas and that inspire us to reflect on and follow, in the words of Lincoln, 'the better angels of our nature.'"

Superintendent Meredith Nadeau said last week that at least one expulsion hearing is anticipated in connection to the case, “by the end of the year or early January.”

Nadeau said initial talks have taken place about convening a study group to work out better ways to prevent substance abuse among students.

“Given the number of students involved, we need to take a look at what is underlying this in the community, not necessarily the incident as it occurred, but the issue of substance abuse in general,” she said.

“We continue to work with the schools as we have in the past but we’re not actively pursuing any kind of program as a result of this incident,” said Sinclair. “We are hopeful that this is an isolated event.”