WEATHERLY POLICE CHIEF GETS 30 DAYS IN POT CASE

Weatherly Police Chief Brian Cara this morning pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor charges of smoking marijuana seized by his department in Carbon
County Court and was sentenced to a 30-day jail sentence.

The plea came at a hearing at which Cara's lawyers were to argue whether
state drug agents illegally videotaped him in his office and whether
evidence against him should be thrown out.

Cara, who had lectured Weatherly students about the evils of drugs through
a program called Drug Awareness Resistance Education, has been suspended
without pay since his arrest in October by agents from the state attorney
general's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

He recently has worked in a grocery store outside Hazleton.

The case against Cara began after four of his officers in the Weatherly
department testified in 2003 before a grand jury in Dauphin County about
his alleged drug use.

The testimony led drug agents to place a camera in the Weatherly police
station and carry out a sting.

According to court papers, a cooperating Weatherly officer placed 2 ounces
of marijuana in the office Aug. 2 and told Cara about it when he showed up
for work at 7 a.m.

According to the grand jury presentment, agent Janene M. Miller saw Cara
smoke some of the sting marijuana the first day it was there.

He was videotaped smoking it Aug. 2, 3 and 4, including one day where he
took hits from a pipe eight times in between borough patrols, officials said.