POT GROWERS, 74 AND 80, TO BE SENTENCED

Burmesch Brothers Enter Pleas Instead Of Going On Trial

Port Washington - The Burmesch brothers avoided going to trial by
acknowledging Wednesday they were two of the oldest and largest marijuana
growers Wisconsin has ever seen.

David Burmesch, 74, and Eugene Burmesch, 80, entered pleas to the charges
they were facing and will be sentenced in June by Ozaukee County Circuit
Judge Walter J. Swietlik.

The brothers' trial was scheduled to begin today before Swietlik.

In exchange for the pleas, Ozaukee County District Attorney Sandy Williams
reduced one of the two charges she had filed against the men. The charge of
possession of marijuana with intent to deliver was reduced to maintaining a
drug manufacturing place. The new charge is still a felony, but it carries
a maximum penalty of two years instead of the 15 years the earlier charge
carried.

However, both men still face sentencing on the charge of manufacturing
marijuana. That charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

David Burmesch pleaded no contest to the charges, which means that while
not admitting he is guilty, he conceded that there was a high likelihood he
would be convicted. Eugene Burmesch pleaded guilty.

Williams stressed that unlike in other plea agreements, there is no
agreement on what she will recommend the brothers' sentences should be.

"There were no negotiations over the proposed sentence," Williams said.
"Their attorneys can come into court and argue to the judge what their
clients should get."

David Burmesch will be sentenced June 19; his brother, on June 28.

"We decided to enter the plea because my client had readily admitted what
he had done," said Bridget Boyle, Eugene Burmesch's lawyer. "He is
accepting responsibility for his actions."

It is possible Swietlik could sentence Eugene Burmesch to probation, Boyle
said. She noted that while Eugene Burmesch did help his brother, the
marijuana was grown on David Burmesch's farm.

David Burmesch's attorney, Kirk Obear, did not return a reporter's phone calls.

The Burmesch brothers were arrested Sept. 1 after agents from the state
Department of Justice's Division of Narcotics Enforcement went to David
Burmesch's Town of Belgium farm. The agents were acting on an anonymous tip
that David was growing and selling marijuana.

The agents found a secret garden in a semi-wooded area on the Burmesch
farm. In the 80- by 40-foot plot, the agents found 498 marijuana plants
averaging 6 feet in height.

In a building next to the garden, they found 98.5 pounds of marijuana
packaged in bundles averaging between 1.5 to 2.5 pounds apiece.

The agents also confiscated a metal scale, plastic bags, a spiral notebook
with notes on growing marijuana, a ledger, a checkbook and a notebook that
contained names and phone numbers.

David Burmesch told the agents he had started growing marijuana about 25
years ago to pay the cost of caring for a developmentally disabled son. He
said he received his first seeds and growing instructions from a co-worker
at A.O. Smith Co.

The brothers said that each year in early spring, they would plant the
seeds in clay pots. Once the seedlings were large enough, the men would
transplant them and then harvest them when the plants were mature.

Both Eugene and David Burmesch told investigators that, for at least five
years, people had been taking the marijuana but not paying for it. David
Burmesch said his crop had been losing its potency for several years and he
had been unable to figure out a way to improve the quality.