REPORTER DEALT LIGHT BLOW IN MARIJUANA CASE

PLAINVIEW A Plainview Daily Herald crime reporter and columnist has
returned to work after he was sentenced to two years deferred
adjudication for the felony of possession of marijuana.

Richard Orr, 63, of Edmonson, recently pleaded guilty to possessing 10
pounds of marijuana found in his back yard on Aug. 30.

State District Judge Jack Miller also sentenced Orr to 80 hours of
community service and fined him $500. The third-degree felony charge
of possessing more than 5 pounds but less than 50 carries a maximum
penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Orr was arrested in late August immediately following the funeral of
his wife, Jean Sterns-Orr, who died after a three-year battle with
cancer. Law enforcement officers were tipped off that Orr had been
growing marijuana on his property and waited for him to arrive home
before they made the arrest.

Terry McEachern, Swisher County district attorney, said he sought a
more lenient sentence for Orr because he had no prior felonies and
because of the circumstances surrounding the case.

Orr told police following his arrest that he had been growing the
marijuana for medicinal reasons relating to an eye problem that might
leave him legally blind in the future.

"He was up front with us, he cooperated with us and fully admitted
everything," McEachern said. "I asked the judge to consider that.
Plus, from all the other indications, if I wasn't 100 percent sure
that he was using it strictly for medical purposes he wouldn't have
been given that offer."

McEachern said that during the two-year sentence, Orr will be required
to submit to a mandatory drug test on a monthly basis and will also
have a nightly curfew of 10 p.m. Orr still faces the maximum penalty
for his crime if he violates the conditions of his sentence, McEachern
said.

McEachern, who has been under fire recently surrounding the racially
controversial trial in Tulia, said his decision to seek a lesser
sentence for Orr couldn't be compared to those sentenced in the Tulia
case.

"All of the facts haven't come foward in Tulia," McEachern said. "I
didn't even send all the ones with priors (felonies) to prison.
There's a whale of a difference."

Danny Andrews, editor of the Plainview Daily Herald, said allowing Orr
to resume his part-time position at the paper was a choice based on
the nature of the crime, and compassion. Orr had been working at the
Herald since 1984, and took an early retirement to work part-time in
June to care for his wife.

"If he had been dealing drugs, it is likely our decision would have
been different," Andrews said. "If nothing else, we are going to err
on the side of compassion. Beyond this, he had no prior record, and we
were not going to throw away his association with us."