KENOSHA MAN GETS PROBATION FOR ROLE IN GROWING MARIJUANA

His Parents Committed Suicide After Similar Charges

Waukesha - A man whose parents committed suicide after being threatened with
prison and home forfeiture for growing marijuana was spared any
incarceration Friday for his role in the operation.

Gone were the pro-marijuana T-shirts that Joshua Schilling's siblings wore
to their parents' funeral in September. Gone, too, were the petitions for
legalization of the drug for medicinal purposes.

Family members instead sat quietly in court and breathed sighs of relief
when a judge told Schilling, 20, that he would serve three years of
probation for his two felony convictions.

Wiping away tears, Schilling said, "I'm sorry, and I'd like to thank my
family and my friends for being there for my support."

Waukesha County Circuit Judge James Kieffer said that he spared Schilling
from prison because he had no record and would live forever with his
parents' decision to hang themselves in a Madison hotel room.

He ordered Schilling to serve three years on probation and to refrain from
alcohol or illegal drug use during that time. He also must pay $2,000 in
fines and a contribution to Drug Abuse Resistance Education, and he will
lose his driving privileges for 18 months. Schilling had faced up to eight
years in prison.

Before the sentencing, a cousin, who with his father had spoken out against
the pro-marijuana spectacle at the funeral for Schilling's parents, was
yelled at by other family members and asked to leave. William Schilling Jr.
told a reporter that he hoped his cousin would never resume using marijuana.

Dennis and Denise Schilling, both 48, committed suicide in September shortly
after the federal government notified them of plans to seek forfeiture of
their $118,000 Big Bend home because it allegedly was used as a drug house.

Waukesha County Metropolitan Drug Unit officers searched the home in June
2002 after Joshua Schilling sold small amounts marijuana on two occasions to
undercover officers. In the home, officers found 21 marijuana plants,
hallucinogenic mushrooms and drug paraphernalia.

Schilling, who now lives in Kenosha, and his parents were charged and
released on bail last summer.

In a suicide note, Denise Schilling wrote that the marijuana growing
operation was all her fault, that she used it to soothe her pain from
manic-depression and, to a lesser extent, a back injury.

"I had tried every politically correct route, from religion to psychotropic
drugs, and none of these avenues had helped in any way," she wrote.

"I cannot go back to the life of insanity which I had before. Perhaps
someday people like me will not be so persecuted."

Assistant District Attorney Lloyd Carter called the case "unusual and
unfortunate." He took no position on how Schilling should be sentenced.

Defense attorney Matthew Huppertz said that Schilling had sold drugs "six or
seven times" and was an unsophisticated dealer.

He said Schilling will always live with guilt and sorrow.

"He never will shake that for the rest of his life," Huppertz said.