POT LOOK-ALIKE CASE HEADED TO COURT

GULFPORT - A hunting club's complaint involving plants destroyed by
narcotics officers may be heard in federal court in November.

Marian Waltman of the Boarhog Hunting Club is seeking compensation
from Harrison County Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. and his department
for damages from a Sept. 8, 2003, raid off Herman Ladner Road where
authorities destroyed 500 plants on property leased by the club.

After the raid, Payne said the plants were believed to be marijuana.
Payne later said his deputies were only assisting agents assigned to a
federal drug enforcement team.

Waltman maintains the 500 plants were not pot, but kenaf, a type of
deer food.

A trial date has not been, set but the case appears on the court
schedule for November.

Waltman sought $225,000 in compensation before his attorney filed the
civil suit in federal court.

Payne and Chet Nicholson, Waltman's attorney, declined to discuss the
case Wednesday. Sy Faneca, the sheriff's attorney, was not available
for comment.

Crime lab results from tests of the plants have not been made
public.

Waltman was not charged in the raid. However, his complaint accuses
the sheriff and his agents of negligence, trespassing, invasion of
privacy and defamation.

A civil lawsuit represents only one side of a claim.