DEADLOCK IN TRIAL OF MAN CHARGED WITH GROWING POT

A maintenance worker accused of nurturing 130 marijuana plants -- some as
tall as eight feet -- in the courtyards of a Cinnaminson motel was spared at
least temporarily yesterday when the jury considering his case deadlocked
after four hours of deliberations. Richard Rowand Jr., 41, who lived and
worked at the Garden State Motel on Route 130 when he was arrested last
year, was charged with the first-degree crime of possessing marijuana with
intent to distribute, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Rowand's attorney, James Logan Jr., had argued that his client "was the low
man on the totem pole" and was made into a scapegoat after police discovered
the plants on Aug. 18, 1998, while investigating a complaint of a Peeping
Tom on the premises. No Peeping Tom was found.

Rowand returned from vacation and discovered that he was a drug suspect.

Motel owner Babu Patel; the desk clerk, Edward Swenson, and Rowand were the
only three who had keys to the locked courtyards, which were used as storage
areas.

"He was merely the maintenance man, returning from vacation. . . . He's the
fall guy," Logan told a jury during the three-day trial before Superior
Court Judge Patricia R. LeBon.

But Robert Czepiel, assistant Burlington County prosecutor, contended that
Rowand had grown the plants, watered them by adjusting the gutters on the
motel's flat roof, and also sprayed weed killer on all of the vegetation in
the courtyards except for the bushy marijuana plants.

Rowand was "given orders to spray the whole area," said Czepiel.

James J. Gerrow Jr., acting Burlington County prosecutor, said that his
office would review the case before determining whether it will be retried.