Pubdate: Sat, 02 Apr 2005 Source: Connecticut Post (CT) Copyright: 2005sMediaNews Group, Inc Contact: http://www.connpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/574 Author: Danial Tepfer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) DORM DRUG DEALER WEEPS AT SENTENCE BRIDGEPORT - Dressed in a gray sweat suit and clutching dollar-store flip flops, a former Fairfield University student burst into tears Friday as she was sentenced to prison for orchestrating large-scale marijuana sales from her dorm room. "I want to apologize; I just want to finish college and get on with my life," 22-year-old Michaela Marshall cried before being led away in handcuffs by judicial marshals to begin serving a 15-month sentence. Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano ordered a co-defendant, Erik Rodriguez, 21, to serve one year in prison. During the sentencing hearing, Senior Assistant State's Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. said the state will investigate the actions of Fairfield University security guards in connection with the case. "From the investigation, what is especially troubling in this case is that security officers at Fairfield U. would find drugs or drug paraphernalia in Mr. Rodriguez's room and not really do anything but take the contraband and who knows what they did with it," the prosecutor told the judge. "That appears to be a violation of the law and appears to be outrageous. That is one of the more troubling aspects of this case that the state will be looking at more closely," Satti said. But Fairfield University spokeswoman Martha Milcarek contended the school's security force was not involved in the case. "We were notified about it late in the game. We did not participate in this undercover operation at all," she said Friday. Satti told the judge the duo was arrested following an investigation in which undercover officers bought marijuana from Marshall, who they said ran the drug operation from her room in the Dolan West dormitory. He said Marshall bragged to an undercover officer that she sold the best marijuana on campus. Satti said they initially received information in February 2004 that Marshall, whose family is from Fairfield and Trumbull, was selling large quantities. Satti said Rodriguez acted as the middleman between Marshall and her unnamed drug supplier. On Feb. 24, 2004, an undercover state trooper, wearing a concealed microphone, arranged to buy marijuana from Marshall, police said. She instructed the trooper to meet her near the Pumpkin Preschool on Grasmere Avenue, where the transaction took place. Police said the undercover officer contacted Marshall again on March 3, 2004, to purchase marijuana and was told to meet with her in her dorm room. Marshall excused herself to meet her supplier in the parking lot, officials said, and then returned to the room, where the sale was completed. Additional purchases of marijuana were made from Marshall by the undercover trooper on March 16 in the parking lot of Fairfield Warde High School and on March 23 outside the university's Dolan dormitory, police said. Just prior to the last sale, police said they saw Marshall go to Rodriguez's room at the townhouse dormitory, where she said she had gotten the marijuana from "Erik.'' Police said they later went to that room where they found Rodriguez sitting in front of a computer, a bag of marijuana nearby. Police later searched Marshall's dorm room where they said they seized a case containing 14 bags of marijuana, several glass bongs and a digital scale. They also searched the Brookbend Road home of Marshall's mother, where police said they found in the student's bedroom closet a bag of marijuana, several notebooks containing written records and drug paraphernalia. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin