Case of marijuana growers raises eyebrows, questions

Just the brazenness of the act would have justified comment. But the case of Kenneth and Rose-Marie Bartholomew goes beyond the fact that they grew marijuana in the basement of their Boardman home, right smack between the homes of the police chief and a common pleas court judge.
It is the quantity of marijuana and the three pistols and a rifle confiscated by the agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that raise eyebrows and questions about the punishment ultimately meted out to the Bartholomews. Based on a plea agreement recommended by Dennis Sarisky, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, visiting Judge Charles Bannon sentenced Kenneth Bartholomew to three years' community control, which means he must report to parole authorities and undergo routine drug testing. Rose-Marie Bartholomew received one year of probation.
Carolyn Patterson, the wife of Boardman Township Police Chief Jeffrey Patterson, was on the mark with her assessment of the crime and the subsequent punishment: "We are glad that something has been done, but I am afraid that people in the neighborhood will say, 'This is it, this is all he got?' If these people, who live in a house and grew pot and sold it cannot go to jail in Mahoning County, then nobody can."
But Sarisky contends that although there were a lot of people stopping by the Bartholomews' house and the quantity of marijuana was large, the state did not have enough evidence to prove they were selling drugs.
Lots of weight
Doug Lamplugh, DEA agent in Youngstown, said investigators took 25 marijuana plants and six pounds of marijuana out of the home but did not have "direct evidence that he [Bartholomew] was selling it." Lamplugh conceded the marijuana confiscated represented "an awful lot of weight."
Mrs. Patterson said she watched for months as various cars would come and go from the Bartholomews' house on Quail Court. The Pattersons live on one side of the couple, and common pleas Judge Jack Durkin used to live on the other. Also in the neighborhood are Dave Schaffer, executive director of the Mahoning County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board, and his wife, Lori. Mrs. Schaffer said that for six years she observed a steady stream of traffic to the Bartholomews' house.
The federal drug enforcement agency conducted the raid in April 2002, and the couple were charged with felony trafficking. However, the charge was reduced through a plea agreement to attempted trafficking and attempted cultivation, both lower-level felonies.
If the facts surrounding this case aren't enough to make you sit up and take notice, consider the following comment from the assistant prosecutor: "There is every indication that this was personal use with his admittance of a drug problem."
If that's true, why wasn't Kenneth Bartholomew sent away to a drug treatment facility? After all, even the DEA's Lamplugh admitted that the marijuana confiscated by agents added up to "an awful lot of weight."