HONDO CITY MANAGER ACQUITTED

HONDO - City manager John Vidaurri was cleared Thursday of a
misdemeanor marijuana charge after he testified that he only
recognized the criminal nature of his houseplant when police came
knocking in June.

The jury of six men and two women took about 30 minutes to acquit the
50-year-old Laredo native who was hired in July 2001 as city
administrator.

"John was elated," Charlie Jones, defense counsel, said afterward. "He
said, 'The cloud is clear.'"

Vidaurri and wife, Sheila, testified they pulled the plant up as a
seedling in May outside a Medina Lake eatery and grew it for
landscaping at a new home.

Asked if he thought he'd done anything wrong, Vidaurri said from the
stand, "Indirectly perhaps. As a city leader I should have been a
little more versed in what a marijuana plant looks like. I believe
very strongly that we need more education along those lines, and after
this is over I'm going to push for that.

"Hondo Police Sgt. Ricardo Garza Jr. testified about his surprise on
June 23 when Vidaurri answered the door at an Encinito Apartment where
a neighbor complained of a 1-foot-tall pot plant among window foliage.

"He stated that he thought it was a chrysanthemum," Garza
said.

Getting a conviction required proving that Vidaurri knowingly and
intentionally possessed pot. The class B misdemeanor carries a
punishment of up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

County Attorney Ralph Bernsen appeared skeptical when Vidaurri
testified that, despite being a teen during the 1960s, he had never
smoked pot and didn't know what marijuana looked like.

In closing Bernsen predicted to jurors that if Vidaurri's claims of
ignorance led to his acquittal, it would prove a convenient alibi from
pot defendants, observers said.

After his arrest, the city manager was relieved of oversight
responsibility for the police department, but he remained in office
pending trial.

Vidaurri couldn't be reached after the verdict.