Second person sentenced in $2.3M Maine prison fraud and kickback scheme
A Florida businesswoman who helped a former Maine prison official steal public funds has been sentenced to six months in jail.
Melanie High, 70, was also ordered Monday to pay the state back $100,000 in restitution. She pleaded guilty in July 2025 to robbery and theft charges, according to court records.
Gerald Merrill, a former deputy superintendent for two Maine prisons, pleaded guilty to the same charges in March. Merrill agreed to serve five years in prison and pay back $500,000, which is roughly what prosecutors say he received in “kickback benefits” from High.
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From 2014 to 2023, prosecutors say, Merrill made more than $2.39 million in purchases to five Florida companies owned and associated with High using state issued credit cards. They are Southern Source Industries, A to Z Chemical Solutions, ACS Solutions, Starlite Supply, and Service Industries.
Two companies were registered to High, prosecutors said. Another company is registered to her daughter, and the other two were registered to known associates.
Many of the orders Merrill placed for cleaning and maintenance supplies either never arrived or were less than what he reported.
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“This intentional theft was on a scale rarely seen in Maine and constitutes official corruption of the most serious kind,” Assistant Attorney General Charles Boyle wrote in sentencing records.
High’s defense attorney, Timothy Zerillo, said it’s unclear how much the state truly lost, and that his client’s lighter sentence than Merrill’s reflects her smaller role in what happened.
In court records, Zerillo said the Maine Department of Corrections Finance Division had all of the suppliers’ records that eventually led years later to Merrill being charged in late 2023.
“The lack of financial controls allowed Mr. Merrill to exploit a lack of oversight,” Zerillo wrote. “The discovery reflected that the expense reports, including the related invoices, were reviewed by someone other than Mr. Merrill.”
High, a Florida resident, served five days in a Florida jail in 2023 following her arrest on the Maine charges.
Merrill worked for Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston and Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport. A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Corrections said Thursday that the agency performed an internal investigation and cooperated with law enforcement during the criminal investigation.
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Detectives began investigating Merrill’s purchases after the Office of the State Auditor reviewed how state employees were using their state issued “procurement cards,” also known as P-cards, in 2022.
Over the last few years, the Department of Administrative and Financial Services said it’s made several changes to employee spending. After changing vendors in 2024, all P-cards that were in use before then were returned and canceled.
DAFS spokesperson Sharon Huntley said the state then assessed every P-card holder’s use over the last six months and adjusted their card limits. There are fewer employees with P-cards now, Huntley said, and the state narrowed what the cards can be used for.
P-card purchases must be approved by a supervisor or finance official monthly with receipts detailing all items purchased. The state is now auditing all P-card transactions annually.
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Tagged: florida, fraud, Maine Department of Corrections, prison
Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was. More by Emily Allen
