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Thomas Delahanty II, Former Maine Judge And U.S. Attorney Who Brought Attention To Opioid Crisis, Dead At 75

Maine's former U.S. Attorney, Thomas Delahanty II (far left), heard testimony during a 2015 summit on Maine's opioid crisis alongside Michael Botticelli, former head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King.
Susan Sharon
/
Maine Public
Maine's former U.S. Attorney, Thomas Delahanty II (far left), heard testimony during a 2015 summit on Maine's opioid crisis alongside Michael Botticelli, former head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King.

Former U.S. Prosecutor and Maine Superior Court Judge Thomas Delahanty II has died.

He served as U.S. Attorney for Maine during the Obama years. In 2015, Delahanty joined drug treatment providers and others to create the Maine Opiate Collaborative. It featured groups focusing on law enforcement, education and drug treatment:

"We cannot be rushed but we must act with dispatch. As each group finalizes an idea we want to put it to work," he said at the time.

The collaborative issued a report the next year recommending the expansion of health care access, an increase in the number of drug courts, improved treatment services, better prevention programs and increased prosecution of drug dealers.

In 2015, he announced charges against two-dozen out-of-staters who came to Maine with illegal drugs to sell. "There is a sign at the southern end of the Maine turnpike that says Maine is open for business, but this is not the type of the business we're seeking," he once said.

In addition to his work as a federal prosecutor, Delahanty served as a Superior Court Judge. Governor Mills, in a statement Thursday, called Delahanty a "champion of justice." He was 75-years-old.