MOTION FILED TO DISMISS POT CHARGES AGAINST POPLAR POLICE CHIEF

The Montana Attorney General's Office has filed a motion to dismiss
marijuana-related charges against Poplar's police chief.

Assistant Attorney General Chad G. Parker filed the motion this week
after a District Court judge said in late October that a search
warrant that led to the arrest of Chad Hilde violated his rights and
ordered all evidence seized using the warrant be suppressed.

Hilde was arrested on Aug. 3 on suspicion of production or
manufacturing of dangerous drugs and criminal possession of dangerous
drugs.

He was arrested after a Roosevelt County Sheriff's deputy, using the
search warrant, found eight marijuana plants growing inside a building
on Hilde's property.

He told authorities that he was allowing a friend to grow medical
marijuana in the building and showed them the man's medical marijuana
card as well as a state form requesting that another man be named the
man's caretaker.

After an initial court appearance in early August, Hilde posted a
$10,000 bail.

The Roosevelt County Attorney's Office turned prosecution of the case
over to the state attorney general's office. On Oct. 27, 15th Judicial
District Judge Richard Cybulski issued a court order that said the
warrant violated Hilde's constitutional rights.

He went on to say that there is no definition of where a licensed
medical marijuana patient or caregiver can grow the plants and that
the warrant was incomplete when it was issued.