Pubdate: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX) Copyright: 2000 The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Contact: http://www.lubbockonline.com/interactive/edit.shtml Website: http://www.lubbockonline.com/ Forum: http://chat.lubbockonline.com:90/eshare/ Author: Emily Robinson, Avalanche-Journal Bookmark: Tulia items: http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=Tulia REPORTER DEALT LIGHT BLOW IN MARIJUANA CASE PLAINVIEW A Plainview Daily Herald crime reporter and columnist has returned to work after he was sentenced to two years deferred adjudication for the felony of possession of marijuana. Richard Orr, 63, of Edmonson, recently pleaded guilty to possessing 10 pounds of marijuana found in his back yard on Aug. 30. State District Judge Jack Miller also sentenced Orr to 80 hours of community service and fined him $500. The third-degree felony charge of possessing more than 5 pounds but less than 50 carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Orr was arrested in late August immediately following the funeral of his wife, Jean Sterns-Orr, who died after a three-year battle with cancer. Law enforcement officers were tipped off that Orr had been growing marijuana on his property and waited for him to arrive home before they made the arrest. Terry McEachern, Swisher County district attorney, said he sought a more lenient sentence for Orr because he had no prior felonies and because of the circumstances surrounding the case. Orr told police following his arrest that he had been growing the marijuana for medicinal reasons relating to an eye problem that might leave him legally blind in the future. "He was up front with us, he cooperated with us and fully admitted everything," McEachern said. "I asked the judge to consider that. Plus, from all the other indications, if I wasn't 100 percent sure that he was using it strictly for medical purposes he wouldn't have been given that offer." McEachern said that during the two-year sentence, Orr will be required to submit to a mandatory drug test on a monthly basis and will also have a nightly curfew of 10 p.m. Orr still faces the maximum penalty for his crime if he violates the conditions of his sentence, McEachern said. McEachern, who has been under fire recently surrounding the racially controversial trial in Tulia, said his decision to seek a lesser sentence for Orr couldn't be compared to those sentenced in the Tulia case. "All of the facts haven't come foward in Tulia," McEachern said. "I didn't even send all the ones with priors (felonies) to prison. There's a whale of a difference." Danny Andrews, editor of the Plainview Daily Herald, said allowing Orr to resume his part-time position at the paper was a choice based on the nature of the crime, and compassion. Orr had been working at the Herald since 1984, and took an early retirement to work part-time in June to care for his wife. "If he had been dealing drugs, it is likely our decision would have been different," Andrews said. "If nothing else, we are going to err on the side of compassion. Beyond this, he had no prior record, and we were not going to throw away his association with us." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake