Matcom Weird News: Judge says honest mistake when plants destroyed

[Maddy McCall]

GULFPORT — A federal judge says Harrison County Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. made an honest mistake when the sheriff destroyed what he and other law officers thought were marijuana plants, and the plants turned out to be deer food.

Marion Waltman's attorney said this week that he is appealing U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr.'s order in May that dismissed Waltman's civil lawsuit against Payne.

Waltman claimed the sheriff violated his rights by destroying more than 500 kenaf plants grown as deer food.

Waltman sought a $255,000 settlement from the Sept. 8, 2003, raid on land leased for the Boarhog Hunting Club. Waltman, who had planted the kenaf, was watching a television news report when he saw inmate workers chopping down plants and heard the sheriff say the plants appeared to be marijuana.

Waltman, 55, of Pass Christian, and Payne would not comment.

/snip

"Virtually all of the law enforcement officers at the scene ... mistakenly identified the kenaf crop as marijuana. Thus, it was not objectively unreasonable for Sheriff Payne to reach the same conclusions."

Court records show an informant reported the crop as marijuana to state narcotics agents and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers. The plants were scattered among other plants, a technique common among marijuana growers, authorities said.


http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/NEWS01/508110351/1002

[jmm]

1. That county needs a whole new police department

if not one of them could figure out the difference between these two before destroying one of them.

[Tsiyu]

2. It's "objectively unreasonable"

that a cop who can't tell the difference between kenaf and marijuana would BE on any drug task force, or that he or she would be allowed to identify crops for law enforcement purposes.

Where do they FIND these people?

Edit for whatever grammar rule I ignored...

[sendero]

3. Who give's a shit..

...if it was an "honest mistake"? That might allow the avoidance of criminal charges, but there is still a civil loss.

If I honestly think you wanted your house painted purple and do so, I'm still liable for damages.

Also, would it not be standard procedure to stake out the plants and try to catch the person who is tending them? What a bunch of morons.