TEEN BUSTED AFTER POSTING PICTURES OF POT ONLINE

SHEBOYGAN - The Sheboygan County district attorney says a Sheboygan
teen is learning the hard way that posting pictures of your potted
marijuana plants on MySpace.com is a bad idea.

That picture, labeled, "My Mary Jane thats growin in my closet right
now," also gave police a road map to the alleged stash.

District attorney Joe DeCecco said that's why [Name redacted], 18,
was charged Wednesday with two felonies and two misdemeanors
following a police raid of his south-side apartment.

"When someone is going to advertise their drug use - or any other
crime for that matter - on a Web site, chances are we're going to
find it, and this is what's going to happen," DeCecco said. "We
appreciate the help. Thanks a lot."

[Name redacted], was arrested Monday after police found three potted
marijuana plants in a basement closet that matched the online
picture, according to a criminal complaint. [Name redacted] was
identified after a school resource officer at South High School
identified him as a former student there.

Still on [Name redacted] MySpace Web site as of Wednesday afternoon
were pictures of a bong commonly used to smoke marijuana - labeled
"my baby" - and numerous pictures of [Name redacted] and his friends
drinking beer and flashing gang signs at parties.

The identifying quote at the top of [Name redacted] MySpace page is,
"I need that Kali Chronic," slang for marijuana.

"People think that Web sites are more private than they are," DeCecco
said. "This is just another tool for us to use."

Police first found out about [Name redacted] alleged drug use through
his postings on another Web site that police monitor for gang-related
activity, according to a criminal complaint.

On that site, one similar to MySpace that allows users to set up
profile pages for others to view, [Name redacted] posted pictures of
numerous weapons and drug paraphernalia and bragged about having
marijuana plants growing in his house and using Ecstasy, the complaint said.

"The officers were surprised about how brazen they were on the
Internet," said Lt. Dave Schafhauser of the Sheboygan Police
Department, referring to [Name redacted] and others pictured or
mentioned on the site. "They talked about their growing of the
marijuana and some of the gang activity they were involved in."

The picture of the potted marijuana plants is also posted on the
gang-related site, the complaint said.

[Name redacted] faces up to three years and seven months behind bars
and fines up to $21,500 if convicted on charges of felony
manufacturing marijuana and maintaining a drug trafficking place, and
misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Eric Litke writes for the Sheboygan Press.