NOTORIOUS POT GROWER SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS

His Son, Ex-wife And Two Others Also Plead Guilty

A Clay County marijuana grower who gained notoriety in the late 1980s
by posing with his plants for a Herald-Leader photo has been
sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney James A.
Zerhusen.

J.C. Lawson, now 53, pleaded guilty to conspiring to grow pot in the
Big Creek area of Clay County in the summer of 2006. Lawson's
ex-wife, his son, another relative and a partner, Douglas Imhoff, 50,
also pleaded guilty.

In 1987, Lawson created a stir by talking openly with the newspaper
about growing marijuana, defending his illegal activity as a way of
providing money in a poor place. He posed bare-chested in front of
marijuana plants for photos.

Lawson said he went public to tell people not all pot growers were
bad. That was after state police killed one of his pit bulls while
searching for marijuana near his home; police said the dog had lunged
at them.

After the article, Lawson, now 53, went to federal prison twice on
drug charges.

In his latest scrape with the law, Lawson was growing marijuana near
Imhoff's home so he could buy cemetery markers for the graves of his
mother and sister, his attorney said in a court motion.

Police hiding in the woods saw Lawson, Imhoff and others in the pot
patches, according to a court document.

In addition to sentencing Lawson to 10 years in prison, U.S. District
Judge Karen K. Caldwell sentenced Imhoff to 70 months in prison,
Zerhusen said in a news release.

Lawson's son Kevin "Moe" Lawson, 27, who was on home detention on a
state charge in 2006 and checked on marijuana plants while wearing a
monitoring device on his ankle, was sentenced to 18 months.

Caldwell also ordered that $119,000 from the sale of Imhoff's house
and that an all-terrain vehicle will go to the government.