BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a plea agreement that called for a five- to seven-year prison sentence for an 80-year-old man who ran a multistate marijuana-dealing operation.

Marshall Dion was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court.

The hearing was canceled after Judge Denise Casper rejected the plea agreement and the joint sentencing recommendation by Dion’s lawyers and prosecutors.

Casper had postponed the hearing last month after she questioned both sides about why the proposed sentence was so much lower than the 30-yer sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines.

Casper gave Dion’s lawyers until March 18 to inform the court whether he will withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial, or agree to be sentenced without a plea agreement. She scheduled a status conference for March 22.

———–

BOSTON (AP) — An 80-year-old man who ran a multistate marijuana-dealing operation faces sentencing in a plea agreement that calls for up to seven years in prison.

Marshall Dion has a sentencing hearing scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court. Judge Denise Casper postponed the hearing last month after she questioned prosecutors and Dion’s lawyers about why the proposed sentence in the plea agreement is only five to seven years when federal sentencing guidelines call for 30 years.

When police stopped Dion for speeding in Junction City in 2013, they found about $828,000 in cash in his beat-up pickup truck. A federal investigation led authorities to Massachusetts and Arizona, where they found about $15 million in cash, nearly 400 pounds of marijuana and ledgers detailing drug deals going back to 1992.