MEDICAL POT CASES IN LIMBO

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - The case of a medical marijuana grower who claims
police wrongly destroyed her plants after raiding her home in Rifle
could impact a pair of related cases.

Gene and Justin Brownlee are both charged in the marijuana operation,
but are still awaiting arraignment. Their cases were delayed on
Thursday to await the outcome of the bigger case.

The attorney for marijuana grower Jennifer Ryan asked District Court
Judge Jim Boyd last month to either toss out the case or the evidence
- some 131 marijuana plants that were seized when officers with the
interagency Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team ( TRIDENT ) raided a
Rifle apartment last August.

Officers said they uprooted and smashed the plants before they knew
about a constitutional provision that requires them to be preserved
until the case is settled. Then after learning about the provision,
they buried them in a landfill.

Ryan's attorney Kristopher Hammond says TRIDENT should be sanctioned
for violating the voter-approved constitutional amendment. Deputy
District Attorney Jeff Cheney says officers were acting on good faith
and the case shouldn't be thrown out.

Boyd, who is also overseeing a 15-day jury trial over a condominium
lawsuit, hopes to make a decision by April 28.

Until then, the Brownlees await their arraignments, now set for May
12. Their attorneys hope to see Ryan's case thrown out, which could
see similar results in their cases.

"The issues are very similar," said public defender Jamie Roth. "It
would be difficult for different conclusions to be reached."

TRIDENT officers arrested Ryan, husband Gene Brownlee and two others
after they said they found 131 marijuana plants growing in the Rifle
apartment the couple was moving into. Ryan admitted the plants were
hers, but said she was allowed to have them because she was a
licensed medical marijuana caretaker for five clients, including
Brownlee. She's pleaded not guilty to cultivating marijuana.

Police say her plants were far in excess of what she's allowed under
the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana.

Gene Brownlee is accused of growing and possessing pot with the
intent to distribute. He says he is allowed to smoke marijuana to
deal with a chronic esophagus ailment that can lead to
cancer. Justin Brownlee, his cousin, is accused of unlawful cultivation.

Family friend Drew Gillespie pleaded guilty earlier on cultivation
charges and is on two years of probation.