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.