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Ben Byorak

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff •
June 28, 2018 6:51 pm

Updated: June 28, 2018 8:37 pm

The center fielder for Brewer High School’s championship baseball team was caught with cocaine in the school parking lot less than 36 hours after the team clinched the title.

Benjamin Byorak, 18, of Brewer was arrested June 17 and charged with aggravated furnishing of a scheduled drug, a felony, according to documents filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center.

Brewer beat Wells High School 3-2 on the afternoon of June 16 at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor to win its first state crown.

Byorak allegedly purchased the cocaine for $100 from a college student and shared the drug with Logan Rogerson, 20, of Brewer, a 2016 graduate of Brewer High School and a former athlete, shortly before police arrived.

Byorak’s attorney, Kaylee Folster of Bangor, declined Thursday to comment on the case.

Information about who is representing Rogerson was not available Thursday.

The charge is aggravated because Byorak allegedly was found with the drug so near the school.

Rogerson was charged with unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, a misdemeanor.

A Brewer police officer spotted a Subaru in a dark corner of the high school parking lot at about 9:30 p.m. on June 17, according to a court document. The officer approached the car and saw a full bottle of vodka on the rear floorboard and smelled marijuana coming from inside the car.

Byorak was in the driver’s seat and Rogerson was in the passenger seat, the document said.

In a search of the car, police allegedly found a jar of marijuana in a backpack that Byorak said belonged to him. Under the passenger seat, the officer found a dark plaque on the floorboard with white powder measured out in the shape of two lines, the court document said. There also was a rolled up $1 bill on the console in the car.

Byorak allegedly told police that he had sold marijuana to his friends “less than 20 times.”

After being interviewed at the Brewer police station, Rogerson was issued a summons and released.

Byorak was arrested and taken to the Penobscot County Jail. He later was released on $500 cash bail.

Both men are due in court on Aug. 14.

It convicted of aggravated furnishing, Byorak faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

Rogerson faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000, if convicted of the Class D possession charge.

Byorak also played ice hockey for Brewer High and was named to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B All-Academic Team last season.

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