Suspended sentence for indoor pot farm
A 36-year-old Whitefish man arrested in
2009 after law enforcement officers found an illegal,
indoor-marijuana growing operation at his residence on Iowa Avenue
recently received an eight-year suspended sentence.
Flathead County District Court Judge
Stewart Stadler sentenced Johnathan Hancock on Dec. 22 to a
four-year suspended sentence for his illegal grow operation and a
concurrent four-year suspended sentence for criminal distribution
of dangerous drugs, both felonies. Hancock also was ordered to pay
a $1,000 net fine for each count, with all but $500 suspended.
Hancock originally faced up to 10 years
in prison and a $50,000 fine for the grow operation and one year to
life and a fine up to $50,000 for each of two counts of
distribution. The second distribution count was dismissed after
Hancock accepted a plea bargain in October.
According to court records, five
officers from the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force and two agents
from the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation served Hancock
with a search warrant at his home on Sept. 8, 2009.
Upstairs, the officers found 30
marijuana plants growing in one room and 25 larger plants in
another room. They also allegedly found two large bags with dried
marijuana in a freezer in the basement; a Lone Ranger lunch box in
the master bedroom holding $10,650 in cash; drug ledgers, paperwork
and drug paraphernalia in the kitchen; and firearms and a
motorcycle.
An investigation of Hancock’s business
began after officers received information that he was growing and
selling marijuana. Two agents from the Division of Criminal
Investigation arranged for a confidential informant to purchase an
ounce of marijuana from Hancock on two occasions at $300 per
ounce.
An electronic monitoring device was
used on both occasions and when the search warrant was served five
days after the second marijuana sale. Using the audio recordings,
Hancock’s lawyer, Thane Johnson, successfully argued in a motion to
suppress evidence that his client’s Miranda rights were
violated.
During his initial interview, Hancock
told the agents he was bipolar and had been under medication for 10
years, and he requested an attorney, Johnson said, but the agents
continued the interview. Hancock also told the agents about the
plants growing in the upstairs bedrooms and the cash in the lunch
box prior to his Miranda rights being read, Johnson said.
Flathead County Deputy Attorney Kristin
Roset later conceded the defendant’s motion to suppress all
statements made after Hancock asked for an attorney.
Johnson also introduced evidence that
Hancock had applied for a Montana medical marijuana card in October
2009, after his arrest. And Stadler agreed to Johnson’s request to
subpoena medical records from the Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic, in
Whitefish, for a medical marijuana patient Hancock claimed he
supplied marijuana to.
Hancock has no prior criminal history
in Montana, but he pleaded guilty in Michigan to a misdemeanor
assault charge in 1997 and to a misdemeanor drug possession charge
in 2001.