photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Baldwin City Law Enforcement Center, 203 First St., is pictured on April 17, 2026.

A Douglas County judge on Monday ordered a Baldwin City man to stand trial on multiple charges of dealing drugs, including methamphetamine, marijuana and mushrooms.

The defendant, Maurice Dijon Lafleur, 54, was charged last summer with three felony drug distribution counts, one felony count of distribution via phone and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. The alleged offenses occurred in spring 2024 while Lafleur was on parole for previous drug crimes.

photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Maurice Dijon Lafleur

According to law enforcement witnesses at Lafleur’s preliminary hearing Monday, Baldwin City police seized multiple illegal drugs and cash from Lafleur’s Baldwin City apartment on April 14.

A special agent with the Kansas Department of Corrections, Richard Westgate, testified that Lafleur’s supervising parole officer had requested that he search the apartment based on a tip that Lafleur had been selling narcotics. Westgate, whose job involves looking for parolees who have absconded and conducting high-risk searches of abscondees, contacted Baldwin City Police Detective Vanessa Garza to assist with the search.

In Lafleurs’s bedroom they located a black case under the bed consistent with information provided in the tip; in the case were various drugs and “a large amount of currency,” Westgate said.

Lafleur’s cellphone was also searched, both at the scene and later, and police said they found evidence that Lafleur had been conducting drug deals via text messages. Garza testified that the phone contained multiple recent conversations about “buying and selling drugs.”

Westgate said that people on parole from KDOC consent to searches without cause, including of their person, house, car and cellphone. He testified that Lafleur had specifically signed such a document. State records indicate that Lafleur’s supervision under KDOC for his 2018 drug crimes expired in December 2024, eight months after the alleged April 2024 offenses.

Garza testified that her first involvement in the case was through a Crime Stoppers tip and that she was contacted in person by Westgate on the day of the search. She said Lafleur was “very” cooperative during the search and that when she interviewed him later he claimed the items found in his apartment, knew what they were and admitted giving, if not selling, some of those items to others. She said she obtained a search warrant to look through Lafleur’s phone and requested the assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in extracting its data.

The amount of drugs wasn’t discussed at Monday’s hearing. Garza said it was the KBI’s responsibility to quantify amounts. The charging document indicates only that police found at least 3.5 grams but less than 100 grams each of meth and mushrooms and at least 25 grams but less than 450 grams of marijuana. The amount of cash reportedly found alongside the drugs was not disclosed.

Lafleur’s attorney, Jessica Glendening, pleaded not guilty on his behalf. His next court date is a status conference on June 2.