The Janesville Gazette, from WI, has reported that a couple is facing their first criminal charges for a pot-growing operation, and the judge has decided to exercise leniency due wanting to keep the family, that includes two young children, all together.
F.R. and A.R., of Linn Township, faced county Judge John Race on June 17 for sentencing. The judge had to decide whether to hand down prison terms, or allow the couple to be placed on work release programs, so that they could provide continuous care to their children.
If the prison sentence was given the children could be forced into foster care.
The elder of the two children, a boy aged 12, fared well throughout the proceedings and only broke down in tears when his mother read a letter aloud apologizing for her criminal actions.
The couple's defense attorney said the boy was allowed in the courtroom to support his parents only, and not in a attempt to sway the judge.
Both A.R., 41, and F.R., 45, were given probation. A.R. is ordered to serve 60 days and F.R. to serve 375 days - both in Walworth County jail.
The couple had plead guilty to two felony drug charges.
Judge Race decided that prison was too harsh a punishment for the first-time offenders and that he was concerned about how the children would be cared for if they were absent.
Race said, "I don't consider this a trifling matter. It wasn't a high school kid smoking a joint or someone selling ditch weed. They had a significantly grave marijuana growing operation."
A.R. resigned from a parent-teacher organization at her children's elementary school - where she once served as its president - after her arrest.
In January 2010 the Walworth County Drug Unit raided two next-door homes on Geneva Avenue. They found approximately 160 live and drying marijuana plants.
They also discovered, per court reports, nearly 20 bags of marijuana stems and seeds.
The couple was charged with drug manufacturing and possessing with intent to deliver related to growing pot plants - a felony - in their basement pot-growing operation that had been going on for approximately a year and ½.
Josh Grube, the Assistant District Attorney, pushed for jail time for F.R. and probation for A.R. Grube said, "They knew what they were doing, this was not a casual hobby but a lucrative business. They were both in it side by side.
I can't say (Mr. and Mrs. R.) are bad people, but what they were doing was bad, I think they were good parents. I think they love their children. But you can't be a drug dealer in the community and not expect significant penalties."
A.R.'s attorney, David Danze, said that his client needed to be with her children, a 12 year-old 6th grader and 7 year-old 2
nd grader.
A.R. told the judge, "Place me on probation for the rest of my life, and I will not violate it, you will never see either of us in your court again."'
Stephen Cramer represented F.R. He said the couple resorted to the pot-growing scheme as they were desperate for cash.
Additionally, F.R. was a caregiver for two dying relatives, his father and stepfather.
Cramer said to the judge, "Can we give him a little slack for the great things he's done?"
The judge said that neither were a danger to society and he would soon decide which would serve the first sentence.
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