FEED STORE SISTERS GIVEN PROBATION FOR SELLING ALLEGED DRUG-MAKING CHEMICAL

LANCASTER (AP) -- Three grandmothers who run a feed store were sentenced to
probation on Friday for illegally selling crystallized iodine, which can be
used to make methamphetamine.

Dorothy Jean Manning, 67, Ramona Ann Beck, 62, and Armitta Mae Granicy, 60,
say they sold the chemical as a cure for equine hoof disease.

The sisters sold $40,000 of the iodine at Granicy's Valley Wide Feed, 60
miles north of Los Angeles.

"For a store our size, that's not a lot of money," said Granicy, who has
owned the store with her husband for four decades.

Their attorney said he will appeal the decision.

"There is not a shred of evidence in this case ... that any meth dealer, or
any drug dealer, ever set foot in that store," attorney Robert Sheahen said
outside court. "There is not the slightest bit of evidence that these good,
God-fearing ladies ever sold to a drug dealer."

The sisters, who had no criminal record, were convicted in April of
misdemeanor failure to properly prepare bills of sale for the iodine. A
1998 anti-drug law requires merchants to log detailed information --
including driver's license and vehicle license numbers -- for all iodine
crystal buyers. Manning was also convicted of selling more than eight
ounces of iodine to one customer in a 30-day period.

Granicy's husband, 64-year-old Robert Roy Granicy, was acquitted of all
charges.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Mintz gave each sister three
years probation and 100 hours of community service. He also ordered them to
pay a minor fine yet to be determined.

Granicy also was ordered to pay a $2,700 fine and contribute $1,000 to a
crime victims restitution fund.

All three were barred from selling iodine during the probation period.