A trial date has been set for the Juneau man accused of running a marijuana grow operation in North Douglas.
On Thursday, Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez scheduled a three-day jury trial for Scott W. Eberhardt to begin March 19, 2012, according to court records. A pretrial hearing was also set for March 12 and an omnibus hearing for Jan. 30.
The 27-year-old was arrested earlier this month after a local real estate agent called the Juneau Police Department to report finding a large marijuana grow operation inside a house she was showing in the 5000 block of North Douglas Highway, prosecutors allege.
An affidavit filed by Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp on Dec. 15 said the real estate agent told police she was in the basement and saw an area that was newly sheetrocked. She looked through a crack, saw marijuana plants and took pictures of what she saw on her phone, the document states.
JPD obtained a search warrant for the home, found and seized 181 marijuana plants, the affidavit says. Eberhardt was renting the home at the time, the affidavit says, and JPD confirmed he was living there.
Police said in an earlier release the plants had an estimated street value of $200,000. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service and the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs Taskforce (SEACAD) assisted JPD in their investigation, that release said.
Eberhardt pleaded not guilty Thursday during a continuance of his arraignment and requested a jury trial, court records show. Bail had already been set for $2,500, $1,500 of which was an unsecured appearance bond and $1,000 as a cash performance bond, his case file indicates. Eberhardt posted bail on Dec. 15 after his first court appearance, records show. His primary attorney is Julie Willoughby, records show.
Comments (36)
Add commentGrowing weed in a rented
Growing weed in a rented house without getting things squared away with the landlord shows a genuine lack of common sense. If anything, this guy is guilty of being really stupid.
Ah Ya
Growing weed in a rented house that is "For Sale"...he didn't think that anyone wud be coming to look at it?,let alone the realtor,wat a dumb *ss..as Bill Engvall wud say "heres your sign"
Evidence
Does a realtor snooping around and taking pictures represent a violation of search and seizure rules?
@Latitude58
The Fourth Amendment has never been applied to prohibit searches carried out by non-governmental persons, so a realtor, pizza delivery kid, friend, etc. can search all they want without violating your 4th Amendment rights.
Poor judgement
He should have limited his grow to a few personal use plants. He still might have got busted but prosecuters would have a hard time proving that it was a commercial operation. And possibly not even bother to prosecute.
Dope
I'm far removed from the pot scene nowadays, but I'd be really interested to know how this affect the prices around town.
Was this a major supplier for Juneau?
However, we have learned that
However, we have learned that this bust was not the result of the sleuths at JPD undertaking a long investigation. This just fell into their laps. That's the way most pot growing busts work out.
Landlord Tennant Act
The landlord tennant act requires 24 hour notice before showing a property. This means he had 24 hours to move his "little operation"....I was going to move my grow op then I got high....I was going to...but then I got high....then I got high....-Reference Afroman
BubbRubb
To answer your question... No... This doesn't affect anything in the slightest... It affects a small number of his buyers(A.K.A. his friends) and not little kids on the playground as some people on here would have you believe.
You know whats really messed up... I'd be willing to bet a Benjamin that Mr. Eberhardt gets more time than our B&E'n buddy Mr. Allen...
Edjuhmuhcated, I have had a
Edjuhmuhcated,
I have had a few acquaintances who have gotten nailed for growing and they got off with pretty light sentences. One of them had a pretty good-sized operation. I really hope your insight turns out to be mistaken. I would lose a degree of respect for the judicial system if Allen were to skate with less time than Eberhardt.
Scott Eberhardt
He definitely had too much for a rented house.. that's too bad!
To funny:
No one ever said dopers were smart.
its not like this man was
its not like this man was hurting anyone.. Meanwhile, a drunk man fired a gun in an apartment complex.
Photos suppressed
Could his lawyers could get the photos, taken by the realtor, suppressed? If so there should be no probable cause to search.
Too bad for Eberhardt that
Too bad for Eberhardt that Louis Menendez is the judge instead of his lawyer. If this were switched, he'd walk and probably be able to sue the city for a bundle.
I bet he paid his rent
Unlike others who struggle to pay rent, I bet his rent was paid on time in full. Grown in Alaska and Paid his rent in Alaska. When smoke is hard to find you have sharks, like when Juneau had that "Rice" scare a couple of years ago, the fields in the philipines and Asian country where flooded.. stores around town so sky rocketed there prices.. and small bag of rice was like 15 dollars and I am not talking about the good kind either.. same with pot. Gram is $20/25 .. perhaps hard to find smoke is gonna sell for $30 so then that is circle of life.. I am proud to say I smoke. its better then this pill popping crap and shooting guns and drinking crap, abusing my kids or family.I do not smoke cigarettes, which can give others cancer, I dont bother anyone, It is my choice of drug. I spend $20 every two weeks, it relaxs me. You wont see me down town begging for money, I dont give my smoke to kids, i dont buy from kids. This may not make me any better then anyone of the other guys i names above. But who am i hurting? I havent read yet " Naked lady got high and ran around downtown pass the governors office" Juneau Empire Exclusive stories. My point exactly
If the realtor was in the home lawfully,
as an agent to sell the home, then the warrant will hold up. Definitely not the brightest bulb in the chandelier!
J.E Fume-Menendez
yup..now that Louis is behind the bench and not at the table theres prob gonna be alot of people getting sentenced that wud otherwise have gotten off.
Keep in mind that Menendez
was a Defense Trial Attorney, so hopefully, he'll be mindful of true justice for all. However, occasionally a strange phenomenon occurs wherein a former defense attorney elevated to a judgeship becomes more harsh in sentencing than a former prosecutor elevated to the bench. Time will tell. I too would hope that Mr. Allen's alleged offenses be judged much more severely than this foolish pot operation.
What a moron
You have a bunch of pot plants in your rented home, you get a notice of a realtor showing the home, and you don't move your plants? Having a small amount of pot for personal use isn't much worse than a big speeding ticket. If they find evidence he planned to distribute (ie: lots of baggies, scales, etc) they can throw the book at him pretty good.
Note to self:
Tape and mud drywall joints.
So how do people get their medical marijuana in Alaska?
I see very few dispenseries downtown. They made a law with no distribution system. Jury Nullification.
Done.
froward
Almost impossible to get a medical marijuana card. The way the legislators have made this law, and if you did no doctor is going to write a script for it. Therefore no need for dispensaries. This law needs to be rewritten. Marijuanadoctors.com list no medical marijuana friendly doctors in Alaska
I have an acquaintance in
I have an acquaintance in California who purchases his marijuana with a credit card. He told me it's easy to get a medical marijuana card in California.
However, just because you have a medical marijuana card, it doesn't mean that employers can't fire you if you test positive on a plss test--I don't know if it has been tried in Alaska, but the Washington State Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 that you can be fired, and the California State Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 that you can be fired. I really doubt if Alaska would be much different.
California med card
I dont know if a California medical marijuana card would be legit here. It would be interesting to find out. There are many dispensaries in California, Oregon, Wash. etc. But would the TSA let you bring it back?
TSA would not let you bring
TSA would not let you bring it on an airplane and would probably arrest you. TSA is a federal agency. However, if they didn't find it, they wouldn't stop you. An out-of-state card would not be valid in Alaska.
Yes, this guy is STUPID. But
Yes, this guy is STUPID. But that does not out weigh the fact that the government has no business dictating to a free people what they can, or can not place in their body's. The second war on drugs has been lost,
Just like the first, alcohol Prohibition. Brings to mind the definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over, & over again. And expecting a different result".
Jury nullification is my hoped for verdict.
Jury Nullification
Just a short introduction to jury nullification to those who do not know what it means: A member of a jury is a sovereign citizen invested with the authority to judge a peer (another sovereign citizen) to be guilty or not guilty of a crime. The jury member may also judge the law with which the peer (the defendant) is being charged with breaking. The jury member can judge the law as unacceptable and hence free the defendant from harm by the state. Thus the jury member nullifies the law. The importance of jury nullification should not be underestimated. When a person is selected to sit on a jury it may be the one time in the average person's life that they can exercise their sovereign rights as free men and women. Thus every citizen has the power to overrule any egregious and unconstitutional law created by corrupt politicians or politicians that think their way is the only way.
Jury nullification isn't some clever legal trick for bad guys to escape justice it IS the power of the people to insure social justice and a defense against tyranny.
madison89, I might agree with
madison89,
I might agree with you in principle, but don't hold your breath. I really doubt if this guy will get off by jury nullification. He's going to do some time. Personally, I'd like to see prohibitions against marijuana lifted, but Mr. Eberhardt will go to jail before that happens.
By the way when you write with an apostrophe, it designates possessive--"body's" is not a plural as I think you intended, but rather a possessive which would mean "of the body." The plural form of "body" is "bodies." People will take you more seriously if your grammar is a little more up to par.
U nue wut hee sed.
U nue wut hee sed. Cumunacashion sucksessfull.