cannabisnews.com: Bothell Teacher is Charged with Growing Pot





Bothell Teacher is Charged with Growing Pot
Posted by FoM on February 16, 2000 at 17:13:51 PT
by Ian Ith, Seattle Times Eastside Bureau 
Source: Seattle Times
A Bothell schoolteacher has been charged with growing marijuana in his home and using the money he made from selling it to pay the mortgage. And now authorities have filed to seize Richard Lewis' house, a three-bedroom rambler last assessed at $138,000. 
Lewis, 55, is to appear in King County Superior Court next week for arraignment on charges of growing marijuana and of money laundering. He remains free pending trial. A special-education teacher at Bothell High School who has taught in the Northshore School District for 28 years, Lewis has been placed on paid administrative leave until the outcome of the case is decided. School officials are investigating whether any of the allegations involved anyone at school. According to court papers, detectives with the Eastside Narcotics Task Force started tailing Lewis in June 1998 after they staked out a gardening store in Bellevue that sells indoor growing equipment. After he bought supplies there, they followed him to his house on 85th Avenue Northeast in Bothell. In January, police served a search warrant at Lewis' home and reported finding 18 marijuana plants. Prosecutors say detectives also found evidence Lewis was selling the pot. Bank records showed unusually large mortgage payments coinciding with the typical harvest periods of the illegal plants, prosecutors say. Published: February 16, 2000Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company Forfeiture Endangers American Rightshttp://www.fear.org/ CannabisNews Articles On Property Forfeitures:http://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+forfeiture
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Comment #2 posted by ADRIAN G. on July 06, 2001 at 22:41:45 PT:
THATS WRONG 
 THAT SUCKS THAT THEY CAN JUST WATCH AND FOLLOW YOU HOME IF YOU ARE SEEN GOING TO A INDOOR GARDENING STORE IT REALLY MAKES YOU THINK.
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on February 16, 2000 at 17:43:16 PT
Green Merchant is alive and well
and still destroying your rights.Green Merchant was the name of a DEA plan to identify cannabis growers by actually tracking the movements of people who bought indoor growing equipment. The 'probable cause' used to justify this was the presumption that only cannabis growers grow anything indoors, so anyone buying any indoor grow equipment was automativally suspected of being a pothead. Store owners were pressured into setting up surveillance cameras in their stores to photograph the clientele, and to turn over receipts of sales to police, to be used as evidence. Some stores were actually DEA-run and staffed. Now, can anyone guess how much money was spent by the Feds and the locals? I will hazard a guess that it was a *lot* more than what the alleged pot salesmen were making. And that they will sell this guy's house for a pittance to (guess who!) another cop or Fed for pennies on the dollar. The bank will take it on the chin, but if the loan was guaranteed through FannieMae, *it's you and me who pay for the difference*. Yes sir, a real tidy little racket if ever there was one. And all 'legal'. Is it any wonder why cops love the DrugWar?
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