Pubdate: Tue, 02 Oct 2012
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Katie May

OOPSY DAISY

Test confirms plants seized from northside home were not marijuana

He doesn't blame police for thinking his daisies were pot, but he
doesn't understand how they made that mistake.

Ryan Thomas Rockman said he's relieved but not surprised that
Lethbridge police dropped one criminal charge against him after they
found out that the plants they seized from his backyard garden three
months ago weren't actually marijuana. Back in July, Lethbridge police
accused Rockman of harbouring the biggest outdoor marijuana grow
operation in the city's history, even though Rockman has repeatedly
insisted all 1,624 plants seized were only Montauk daisies - a
fall-blooming shrubby perennial that he's been growing for 10 years in
his yard in the 900 block of 13 Street North.

"It made me look like a villain and it made them look silly," Rockman
said Monday afternoon, explaining police had let him know earlier in
the day that they would be dropping one of five charges against him.

"Everybody makes mistakes. I still scratch my head over how," he said.
"It baffles me, to be honest. At the same time, I don't want to try to
point the finger of blame at them either because they're still just
trying to do their mandate and make it home every day," he added.
Rockman also said he'd support relaxed laws on marijuana use so that
police could spend their time on what he sees as more serious crime in
the community.

"I just hate that the whole situation happened and I wish that it
didn't happen and there's nothing I can really do to change that at
this point. I don't really wish to fling mud at them either," he said
of police. "They're in a situation every day in their job where they
could potentially be risking their life or dealing with situations
that other people don't want to deal with," he added. "The police do
an important job in our community. Everybody is human."

Samples of the plants police had sent to a lab in B.C. tested negative 
for marijuana, so police have dropped the most serious charge against 
Rockman: producing a controlled substance, although the 41-year-old 
still faces charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking, 
possession of a controlled substance, and possessing proceeds of crime 
in relation to 697 grams of dried marijuana, 6.3 grams of cannabis resin 
and some cash that police also allegedly seized during the investigation.

Rockman's lawyer, Art Larson, said he expected the dropped charge to
help his client's case, but added Rockman's reputation was tarnished
from the moment police put out a news release on July 31 declaring the
bust the largest outdoor marijuana grow-op Lethbridge had ever seen.
"I've never seen anything like this with such deliberate publicity,"
Larson said. "It's very disappointing that it was made such a big deal
to the extent that his name gets blasted on the front page of the
Lethbridge Herald with what turns out to be not marijuana."

The test results didn't confirm that the plants were daisies, only
that they weren't drugs, said a spokesperson for the Alberta Law
Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), which investigated the case. "All
we know at this time is that it's not marijuana," Jill Baird said.
Because the remaining charges are still before Lethbridge Provincial
Court, she declined to comment on whether the outcome of this case
will change the way police investigate drug busts, but she said she's
never heard of this kind of mix-up happening before. "I can't recall
this happening in the past, at least not here at ALERT," she said.

On July 30, Lethbridge regional police knocked on Rockman's door to
check on a court-imposed curfew for one of his relatives, who wasn't
there. Instead, police found Rockman had, admittedly, been smoking
marijuana, which led them to a search of his property, where they
ripped out the plants. Brent Allen Oczko, 43, was also charged with
one count of possession during the raid.
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