A man who inherited a Medford-based shipping business from his father and mailed thousands of pounds of marijuana across the country apologized as he stood before a federal judge for sentencing Wednesday.
“I felt an absolute duty to take care of everything that he left behind, and clearly it was more of a mess than I anticipated having to clean up,” Matthew Sachen told U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane.
Sachen’s defense lawyer said his client was unaware his dad had been shipping the marijuana for customers, but he continued to do so.
“It’s unfortunate that I found myself in that predicament,” Sachen added. ” I take full responsibility. I felt like I was living kind of a bad dream.”
In June, Sachen, 30, pleaded guilty to use of interstate facilities to promote or facilitate a racketeering enterprise, a felony.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Brassell sought a sentence of three years of federal probation while Sachen’s lawyer, Justin N. Rosas, argued for the “smallest sanctions available.” Rosas said Sachen has worked to help people everyday as a wildland fire paramedic since he sold his dad’s business and dreams of becoming a firefighter paramedic.
The judge appeared to side with the defense.
McShane questioned whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office had considered a diversion program instead to avoid Sachen from having a felony conviction on his record, considering he has no criminal history.
Describing the crime as the “definition of circumstance,” McShane gave the government a choice:
He’ll put Sachen on one year of probation if the government considers either a diversion program for Sachen or reducing the conviction to a misdemeanor at the completion of the probationary year.
Otherwise, the judge said he’ll close the case with Sachen’s felony conviction but not issue any further penalty or supervision, essentially what’s called a “sentence of discharge.”
“I don’t want to waste probation efforts keeping in touch with somebody who does not think like a criminal,” McShane said. “He’s not the typical client in federal court. I realize he made an incredibly stupid mistake when he found himself in the middle of a marijuana business he inherited. But he sold the business, got out of it.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has one week to respond to the judge.
Sachen told investigators that he took over the ProPack & Ship business after his father’s death in late 2021 and continued what his dad had started.
He packaged the marijuana to avoid detection, stored the cash proceeds and created fake names for customers to avoid identification by law enforcement, according to the prosecutor.
When an undercover detective brought 16 pounds of marijuana to the business in March 2022 and asked to send it out of state, Sachen instructed his customer how to mask the smell of the pot using special containers and then shipped it to its intended destination out of state, according to Brassell.
The undercover detective returned the next month with another shipment, and Sachen helped tape up the box for mailing.
In a letter to the judge, Sachen asked for leniency.
When he inherited the business after his dad’s unexpected death, he had little knowledge of how to run it. He said his discovery that people had been shipping marijuana was “slow and gradual,” according to the letter.
“I admit with all due responsibility that I participated in it, perhaps with confusion and pretense, as if it were a bad dream,” Sachen wrote. ”Clearly I violated the law and made a life-altering mistake.”
Sachen has completed firefighting academies through Rogue Community College and wants to work as a firefighter.
Though he was caught in the act, Sachen’s role was short-lived, as he negotiated the sale of the business to a local marijuana grower within months of inheriting it and before his arrest, according to the prosecutor and defense lawyer.
But federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration were already involved and investigating the business.
The judge shared that his own spouse had a drug felony from years ago and went on to nursing school but it was a challenge to overcome, yet he’s now an oncology nurse doing quite well.
“You can overcome this stuff with who you are,” and with strong advocates, McShane said, but added that a felony conviction certainly will bar Sachen from certain jobs.
“I would like to see you get this behind you in a less onerous way than a felony,” he said.
But the judge also cautioned Sachen not to get his hopes up, noting that what he’s suggesting would be an “exceptional resolution.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has until next Wednesday to provide a response, before a formal sentence is entered.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.
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“I realize he made an incredibly critical mistake,” U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane said, “ but he sold the business and got out of it.” Read More
