Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 Source: Business Wire Authors: Amy Rindskopf, Samantha Martin NEW YORK CITY LAWYER FOUND GUILTY IN LARGEST MARIJUANA CULTIVATION OPERATION EVER IN NEW ENGLAND SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-A New York City lawyer was found guilty by a jury late yesterday in connection with the largest and longest running indoor marijuana growing operation ever in New England. Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, George Festa, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England, and Michael Lahey, Acting Chief of the Criminal Investigative Division of the Internal Revenue Service, announced that HERBERT B. DERMAN, age 67, a lawyer from New York City, and North Egremont, Massachusetts, was found guilty after a three week jury trial of conspiracy to cultivate more than 1,000 marijuana plants. The jury also found that DERMAN'S residence and 200 acres of real property in North Egremont, MA, isho be forfeited to the United States. U.S. Attorney Stern stated: "This case involved the largest and longest running indoor marijuana growing operation in the history of New England. HERBERT DERMAN allowed his rural North Egremont, MA, land to be used to operate a vast underground marijuana growing operation for over seven years." According to evidence introduced at the trial, DERMAN conspired with Marcel Rosenzweig, Richard Haber, Nicholas Pinto Edward Brennan, Marjorie Brennan, Sabrina Brennan and others to grow over two hundred thousand marijuana plants, first inside a huge underground bunker of DERMAN'S property in North Egremont, MA, from 1983 to 1991, and then inside a barn on Rosenzweig's property in Sandisfield, MA, from 1992 to 1995. During two court authorized searches of Rosenzweig's property in August, 1995, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized over 5,000 marijuana plants and over $1 million in cash and gold. The jury acquitted DERMAN on related money laundering charges. Since the indictment was first returned in the fall of 1995, Rosenzweig died of natural causes, and eleven co-conspirators pled guilty to charges related to the marijuana growing conspiracy. U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor scheduled DERMAN'S sentencing for October 28, 1998. DERMAN faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum mandatory term of 10 years. The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Western Massachusetts Narcotics Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ariane D. Vuono and Kevin O'Regan in Stern's Springfield office. - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett