Pubdate: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 Source: Aspen Daily News ( CO ) Copyright: 2005 Aspen Daily News Contact: http://www.aspendailynews.com/contact us/form.htm Website: http://www.aspendailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/635 Author: David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) 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.