From: CBS St. Louis
File photo of a garden. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — Two former CIA employees whose
Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state
drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had
bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.
Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about
why sheriff’s deputies searched their home in the upscale Kanas City
suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener —
a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted
marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and
cash from several other locations.
April 20 long has been used by marijuana enthusiasts to celebrate the
illegal drug and more recently by law enforcement for raids and
crackdowns. But the Hartes’ attorney, Cheryl Pilate, said she suspects
the couple’s 1,825-square-foot split level was targeted because they had
bought hydroponic equipment to grow a small number of tomatoes and
squash plants in their basement.
“With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law
enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are
potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly
frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings
indoors,” the couple’s lawsuit says.
The couple filed the suit this week under the Kansas Open Records Act
after Johnson County and Leawood denied their initial records requests,
with Leawood saying it had no relevant records. The Hartes say the
public has an interest in knowing whether the sheriff’s department’s
participation in the raids was “based on a well-founded belief of
marijuana use and cultivation at the targeted addresses, or whether the
raids primarily served a publicity purpose.”
“If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable
resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn’t led a perfect life
supposed to be free in this country?” Adlynn Harte said in an interview
Friday.
The suit filed in Johnson County District Court said the couple and
their two children — a 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son — were
“shocked and frightened” when deputies armed with assault rifles and
wearing bulletproof vests pounded on the door of their home around 7:30
a.m. last April 20.
“It was just like on the cops TV shows,” Robert Harte told The
Associated Press. “It was like ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ ready to storm the
compound.”
During the sweep, the court filing said, the Hartes were told they
had been under surveillance for months, but the couple “know of no basis
for conducting such surveillance nor do they believe such surveillance
would have produced any facts supporting the issuance of a search
warrant.”
Harte said he built the hydroponic garden with his son a couple of
years ago. He said they didn’t use the powerful light bulbs that are
sometimes used to grow marijuana and that the family’s electricity usage
didn’t change dramatically. Changes in utility usage can sometimes lead
authorities to such operations.
When law enforcement arrived, the family had just six plants — three
tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants — growing
in the basement, Harte said.
The suit also said deputies “made rude comments” and implied their
son was using marijuana. A drug-sniffing dog was brought in to help, but
deputies ultimately left after providing a receipt stating, “No items
taken.”
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