PARIS — A West Paris man was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in prison for selling heroin.
Richard Labay, 39, was one of 15 people arrested in 2015 in what officials called the largest drug investigation in Oxford County history. He pleaded guilty in September to felony conspiracy to commit trafficking in scheduled drugs.
Active-Retired Justice Robert Clifford sentenced Labay to four years in prison, with all but 20 months suspended.
During Tuesday’s sentencing, Labay also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of heroin and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, which will run concurrent with the trafficking charge.
In exchange for the plea, the state dropped charges of unlawful possession of hydrocodone and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs.
Clifford said Labay will serve three years of probation. Probation conditions include submitting to random searches and testing, not owning or possessing any illegal drugs, and completing counseling and treatment for substance abuse.
According to a statement by Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Director Roy McKinney in 2015, information provided by a Maine State Police trooper from a motor vehicle stop prompted a two-year investigation that helped identify and infiltrate a heroin distribution network. The network was selling a tenth of a gram for $30, half a gram for between $80 and $100, and a gram for $180.
Between January 2013 and April 2015, the investigation uncovered 15 people police believe were responsible for the importation and distribution of 17.8 pounds of heroin throughout Oxford County. That is the equivalent of 80,000 doses with a street value of $3.2 million, according to a statement from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Peter Rodway, serving as Labay’s attorney, brought several of Labay’s friends and family forward as character witnesses. They included Vanessa Greeley, the mother of Labay’s son, and her parents, Don and Jeanette Baldridge.
All three identified Labay as a hard worker, a great father, and someone who would always lift a hand to help someone in need.
“He’s the father of my child, and I don’t think it’ll do him any good to be in jail,” Greeley said. “He’s made a few mistakes in his life, but Richard is a very good man.”
She said their son “needs a dad at home” to teach him how “to take the adverse things in life and turn them to positives.”
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