| Percy E. Sargent plea bargains |
| October 21, 1981, eight months after informant Percy Cote was sentenced to two years in state prison, Percy Sargent, Jr.
plea-bargained (Percy knew how to play the system) with the state for
drug trafficking the night Mike was murdered. Judge Ian MacInnes sentenced
Sargent to two
years which was to run concurrent with his
rape charge. He had been
sentenced to eight years in Maine State Prison for rape in April of
1981. The news reported that he could have been sentenced to twenty
years. His appeal for the rape had been denied the day before he went to
court on the drug trafficking charge. He tried to have the two-year
sentence reduced by convincing the judge that he was only acting as the
middleman. But his SBI record for drug trafficking showed, at that date,
that drug dealing was second nature to Percy Sargent. |
| Judge MacInnes gave Sargent a lenient sentence: |
"The reason I am going along with it [Concurrent sentence], most likely, it is not a valid one, and that is that you have this other eight-year matter to serve [for rape] and so it somewhat colors the whole sentencing procedure here. If you were just standing here now to be sentenced on this and there was nothing else, I imagine I would not go along with any two-year sentence, because I would say, look, he got two-and-a-half one time, then he had gotten way in excess of that, and that has not worked, so we might as well put him down there where he won’t be getting involved in this. ... |
| December 3, 1980, Judge MacInnes sentenced Mike to the maximum sentence that the law allowed for his first drug offense. Count I: unlawful trafficking in schedule x drugs - 5 years and Count II: Unlawful trafficking in schedule Z drugs - 1 year, except the one year ran concurrent with the five years. |
| I contact Percy Sargent again in 1988 |
| February 21, 1988, I recorded a conversation I had
with Percy Sargent, which he suspected and said so during our conversation. “Percy, at one time you wrote me a letter.” “Yeah, the things that I can tell you will never really convict anybody ...” “Well ... I’d just like to be able to talk to you. You know, you were with Lionel and Paul when they went to Rhode Island . ...” “That’s right.” “... [When] you wrote to me you said Lionel picked Paul up right after the fire ..." “That might be true.” “... [W]e know that Paul Pollard definitely needs to be looked at.” “But see what they’re looking for, Mrs. Cochran, is an eyewitness and I wasn’t an eyewitness to anything. So you know, all they ever have is speculation and that‘s all they could ever use anything for.” “Well Percy, that‘s not true. If you get the right person ... Richard, look what’s happening to him and you know the thing is as far as the public’s concerned they still look at him as though he’s a murderer and we know, you know yourself Paul Pollard was in that cabin with Micheal and he was the one that testified against you guys and he’s the person that needs to be looked at.” “[W]hat they’re looking for, Mrs. Cochran, is an eyewitness, and I wasn’t an eyewitness to anything. So you know, all they ever have is speculation. ... The most important thing I can tell you Mrs. Cochran, is that Micheal is one of the best people I’ve ever met, you know, and I tried to help him and that’s because I was his friend and that’s the way you should be the happiest about.” 1 “Well, no, Percy. I shouldn’t be. You wouldn’t be happy that somebody was shot and then burned up. You know, seven years ago today [February 21, 1981] his body was still down there under that pile of rubble. You know, I can’t look at it and say I should be happy because that happened to him. ... [Pollard] walked away scot-free and I don’t think that there’s any justice in that.” “There’s no justice in anything anyway. You know, I was a person that tried to help your son ... and what I could tell you is nothing that hasn’t been written down or said over the last years of all this and, you know, there’s so much that everybody has said and what I can say -- I can’t -- I don’t even know of because I wasn’t there. I was in jail that night and for the days that followed that whole thing....” “Well, Lionel told Richard a lot though. He told him why Lionel took Paul out of state.” “Yeah see, well, that’s Dick’s view you see.” “Well, it’s not only his view it’s what Lionel told him.” “... Let me give you this for an example of what Lionel Cormier is like. Everything he says is a lie ...” “Yeah, but the thing is though, Percy, for them to put it on Richard ...” “Let’s say God killed Micheal. If you’re a Christian you may believe that .” “Yeah, I am a Christian, but I know God didn’t do that. Now come on Percy, listen to me. You know that God Almighty ---” “I could sit here and talk to you all day ma’am but I can’t —I don’t know who they were.” “But what I’m saying Percy, we know God didn’t kill Micheal. It was a man that killed Michael, two of them. [with Percy there were 3 of them] " Well, to me it makes more sense to understand that maybe the police are covering the whole thing up. Did you think about that? ... you really want to get into this ... you’ll have to go back to my drug arrest that night. Of what went on there. You know, this whole thing was built up after a major drug bust which the cops were looking for drugs and there were supposed to be drugs out there at Lucerne. ... "But if you look at that fact and see that there may be a real dirty person in here and done all this whoever ran that operation that night and did something real dirty. Because those cops that night, this is a stated fact in the testimony, is that when they arrested us that night they were looking for cocaine, right? ... 2 This is all written down and, they didn’t wait for the coke bust to happen, see. They got the pot. They got started and they arrested us, ’cause I was supposed to go to another location and pick up the coke. So these people are saying, ‘well we got all kinds of stuff here. We’ve got money for this ounce of cocaine.’ Well, where’s the coke? Well, it was out to Lucerne.” I asked Percy if the DEA agents knew where he was living when they arrested him. And he said “Of course they did. They called me. The State Police called me. They knew I was living down in Lucerne. ... I didn’t know they were cops at the time, ma’am. See, it was all undercover. ... The thing about it all is the cops aren’t going to investigate anything, you know. They’re not going to investigate themselves if they did a stupid stunt like that, you know. ...” 3 “... But the thing is, Percy, somebody broke the glass out of the door when they got there that night. The fire marshal can tell that. See, Micheal wasn’t in his bed. Micheal was by the door. Micheal had gotten to the door. I think Micheal was leaving. I think Micheal was shot in the head before he went out, before he fell.” [I know today that Mike was shot out side and dumped back inside the cottage] “It’s probably one of them cops. They had their guns right out there, walking in that door. He came down [the stairs] there or something and all of a sudden they see this, they shot him and they burned her down and they did their dirty little stupid deed that night, you know, and they made a mistake, 4 and none of them wanted to pay for it, you know. ... Here they are calling me at camp all day setting that bust up. They called me three times I believe.” I said, “I thought it was Percy Cote who called you?” "It was. But the cops were right with Percy Cote... Well, he could have had other charges and they could have just wanted him to set up [the drug deal] ... You want to quit thinking about if Lionel and Pollard did all this 5 and you want to look more at the facts that actually happened out there, which was a stupid thing that the cops did and they’re not gonna ever own up to it. Unless you put the pressure right on them, you know. If everything I’ve told you is a lie or it could be the truth. ... “It was late when I came over the bridge. They had us out to, you know, that’s the time the bust went down, but we were there for a lot longer than that while they were searching the house and everything and they had guns up our nose and every other God damn thing for some little bit of pot, you know. There must have been thirty cops there that night. It was just amazing, you know ... If you can put them away, I hope you have a lot of power.” “But you think, I think Micheal died because of that drug bust.” “Oh yeah, I imagine so. ...it was a blunder for me to even be talking to this guy on the phone. ... But I had known him anyway from up north.” When I told Percy that Pollard was in the cabin and that he would have to know something. He said, “Who knows what he did. He’s the only one that knows. I don’t know because he never told me anything and Paul Pollard was a real quiet person to begin with. He hardly spoke and well, he was in the jail that four or five days right after the fire. ... I don’t know what Lionel knows. I don’t know what Pollard knows. ... "Those cops went out there. and they did that just as sure as, you know, as sure as there’s gonna be another law next year they did that. ... going right out there and get that coke too, you know, and they squealed right out of there and went right out there and did a dirty thing and they’re not gonna ever, ever take credit for it because nobody’s ever gonna prosecute them unless you want to fight on for years and years and I can never get on the witness stand and say anything, because I’m just a nobody from a prison. I’m a dog eat dog that’s trying to get out and come home to my family, you know. ... " I tried to save your son from the same misery that I had for the last six years and I hope you take that into consideration about what’s spread in the newspapers about me because it makes me sick. ... They don’t write anything about me because I don’t have nothing to say. ... but if they don’t put that drug bust and that murder together they’re never gonna solve that crime. ... But I’m sure you’ll give it a good shot and I hope you success and everything. “Well, I hope we give it a shot that’s good enough to see that Richard Sargent is not guilty, they’ve tried to frame him in any way they can.” “My brother. I don’t know anything, you know. What can I say? I’m a guilty robber. I’ve pleaded guilty to robbery and I’m gonna do my time and get out of here, you know.” “Yeah.” “You know, I’ll never go to court. That’s the last place in the world I want. If I go to court that makes me the ugliest person in the world and I don’t want to be ugly. 6 I just want to get out of jail, you know. Those people upset me a lot. If they never want to listen to the facts that I have to tell them, you know, because I’ll probably end up sitting in jail for another year for contempt of court or something because I am kind of an emotional kind of guy ... So, if you want to, you’re gonna have to arrest Christopher Almy, that DA agent that was in charge of that whole thing ... 7 There was 20 or 30 of them out there. But I’m sure Fred [Clark, Director of DEA in 1981] and them took a little reconnaissance mission out there to get that cocaine or one of them cops probably did, you know. ... 8 "I just hope you take into [account] my feelings too about this whole thing because I loved your son 9 and I’m in prison trying to, you know, just to get my time done and get it over with. To have my name dragged through that newspaper makes me sick, you know.” Percy sending a call to have my son murdered made me sick too! But I was too afraid of this dangerous man to confront him. |
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Notes: |
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1. Percy was trying to con me like he did Judge Ivan MacInnes. But I knew he was no friend of Mike’s. You don’t send a call to have your friend or the best people you
ever met murdered. At this time, I had the statement Maine State Police Det. Pinkham took from an inmate at the county jail that said: “The night that Percy was arrested on drug charges and brought to the Penobscot County Jail that he overheard an inmate ... and Percy Sargent talking. Sargent had stated that he thought Micheal Cochran had set him up for the drug bust and he (Sargent) had already made the call out to have Cochran taken care of.” 2. Some of what Percy said could be verified by drug agent Joseph Harrington's testimony during the 1981 DEA drug trials. He said while working out the deal "Mr. Cote stated to myself that rock cocaine would be $3,000 for 1 ounce and the marijuana would be approximately $450 a pound.” He also testified that the DEA agents did not get the coke. Cote’s defense attorney, Charles E. Gilbert III, objected to the mention of the one ounce of rock cocaine because the agents only got the 10 pounds of marijuana. There was nothing in Harrington’s testimony about the coke being out to Lucerne. But Jamison’s fire report states that when MSP Det. Ralph Pinkham and Bangor PD DEA Commander Fred Clark arrived on the murder scene (The day Mike was found in the six-day old fire rubble) they went to the little garage and started searching it. Fire Marshal Ricker told me they were searching for drugs. Why did they wait until Mike was found to look for the cocaine? 3. I did believe, before talking with Percy, that Maine State Police Detectives Pinkham and Shuman should not have been the detectives on Mike’s murder since the Maine State Police were running the Maine DEA. According to a report in the BDN in 1986 it said that the dominance of the task force by the Maine State Police was compromising the potential effectiveness of the unit.” 4. It was Percy who made the mistake when he sent a call to have Mike taken care of and I think he knew it. Percy said, in his brother Richard's recorded conversation, "What I understood [is] that Cormier had been there and talked to Cochran and Cochran was trying to get him to take him down out of the camp too and he wouldn’t say too much about it. But he was down there I guess, before the fire. … He told Paul not to worry about it because he had a good alibi from Paul and everything. … but someone went down there cause Cormier was down there. … It was just that Lionel had come down there to pick him up and Cochran wanted to go with them. Cochran went no place with nobody. 5. Percy had no reason to talk against Cormier and Pollard now because he was almost done serving his prison sentence. He wasn’t going to make waves for himself nor do anything to help me or his own brother. 6. I knew about him being ugly and upset, that’s why he sent the call to have Mike taken care of. 7. Percy said that "[Y]ou’re gonna have to arrest Christopher Almy, that DA agent that was in charge of that whole thing." Almy was not Penobscot County DA in 1981, David Cox was. Cox was not appointed District Court Judge until 1984. I believe the reason Maine State Police Det. Pinkham had me come to DA Cox's office for my second meeting with him and Shuman was because Cox was controlling the investigation of Mike's murder. During the meeting Pinkham denied telling me that Percy Sargent sent a phone call to have Mike taken care of and Shuman threatened me with charges for, according to him, knowing where Mike was during the time he was a fugitive and not turning him in. What happened, during the Maine State Police drug sting that DA Cox was "in charge of," that had to be covered up? Andrew Mead, Mike's attorney, said to me "Stay away from that, Mrs. Cochran. Why? I know that Lionel Cornier, Paul Pollard and Percy Sargent murdered Mike. So, what did the Maine DEA do the night of the drug sting that caused them to let murderers walk free and try to frame three innocent men for Mike's murder. I know the DEA impounded the red Pinto Percy was driving the morning of his drug arrest, Feb. 18, 1981, and that the red Pinto was seen at the arson/murder scene at the time Mike was murdered. Fire Chief Herrin arrived at 3:55 am and Pollard was still there. I know that Bangor PD Lt. Roger Bryce informed the owners the morning of Feb. 18, 1981 at about 9:00 a.m. that their cottage burned that morning, four hours after Pollard was seen fleeing the arson/murder scene. I know that DA David Cox dismissed Mike's escape before the Medical Examiner's office left the arson/murder scene with Mike's body the day he was found, Feb. 24, 1981 and that Cox's office closes for the day at 4:00 p. m. and that the autopsy wasn't done until the next day. I know that the DEA didn't go to the arson/murder scene to look for cocaine until Ricker and Jamison's found Mike's body on the 24th. Regardless of already knowing the cottage had burned on Feb. 18, the morning Bryce informed the owners that their cottage had burned that morning. Det. Ralph Pinkham told me in March of 1981 that Percy Sargent sent a call to have Mike taken care of (I have the statement) and that Lionel Cormier set the fire. He covered for Paul Pollard saying he would have died also if he hadn't fled. But during my second meeting with him and Shuman at DA Cox's office he retracted his information and said he didn't tell it to me. If the authorities knew Mike was left lying under the burned fire rubble for the six days he was left lying there (Ricker said animals took parts of his body) how serious would that be? And why would they do that? Did Pollard see them at the arson/murder scene or did they know that their drug sting had caused Mike's death so they left the scene. Mr. Cross said the woman he heard on his police scanner said there was a fire, two men walking another man, a gun shot and to "watch for a red Pinto heading to Brewer." Then the cover-up for Paul Pollard began. Det. Shuman committed perjury to cover for Pollard's crimes and DA Cox wiped Pollard's criminal record clean. Why were the state police and the local DA protecting Paul Pollard? I believe the cover-up for Paul Pollard is not only about Mike's murder. During Derry's, April 14, 1986, recorded conversation with Percy Sargent, Percy accused Pollard of Mike's murder. When Derry said to Percy “He shot Mike, didn’t he?” Percy said, “I believe so.” Derry: “You believe so. Is that what you said, you believe so?” Percy: “... Well see, Pollard thought that night, when they were sitting there listening to a police, that police scan radio, was that Mike had called the cops after I left that house to set up that drug deal or something like that and people get paranoid on coke and you know, it’s hard to explain their actions or anything and he just figured he’d done it before so why not do it again, you know? And that’s what we’re gonna try to bring up in this trial of mine next month.” What had Pollard done before? Who is Paul Pollard? 8. The red Pinto the DEA impounded was seen at the murder scene the morning Mike was murdered according to what Everett Cross told me he heard on his police scanner in 1985. 9. Percy cared little about my son when he solicited his murder. |