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Albemarle Farmer Found Not Guilty of Pot Charges After Plants Spotted in Warrant-less Search

From The Daily Progress

Original article available here

A jury of six women and one man found an Albemarle County man not guilty of marijuana possession Wednesday night after deliberating just over two hours in a controversial case that raised concerns about law enforcement in drug raids.

Philip Cobbs, 54, took the stand late Wednesday afternoon and told jurors that he “had no idea” two waist-high marijuana plants were growing on his 37-acre farm when they were seized by drug enforcement officials last July.

Cobbs said he noticed a helicopter flying over his property as he was tending to his blueberry plants the morning of July 26, 2011.

Shortly thereafter, Cobbs said he was confronted by men “dressed like they were not the average police officer” quickly approaching him in his yard.

“The guns were pointed in my direction,” he said, adding that he was “somewhat startled” to see the officers.

Cobbs told Judge Cheryl Higgins that he found it “miraculous” that drug enforcement officers could spot the plants from a helicopter. Throughout his testimony, Cobbs maintained that he did not know there were illegal drugs growing on his property.

It took nearly two hours to seat a jury in the case. Six potential jurors were stricken for cause, and even more expressed disapproval at national marijuana laws.

“Possession? So what?” joked one female juror when questioned about her beliefs. She was eventually seated on the jury after she said she could hear the trial fairly though she does not agree with the criminalization of marijuana.

“I’ve smoked a lot of weed,” one potential juror told Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew J. Quatrara during jury selection, eliciting snickers from the courtroom gallery. The man was not seated.

At one point the court took a brief recess when some of the nearly 100 grams of marijuana spilled on the courtroom floor after being admitted as evidence.

“The law does not permit you to invalidate your finding of guilt based on your disagreement with the law,” Quatrara said during his closing statement.

He called several members of the marijuana eradication team that searched Cobbs’ property to the stand.

Trevor Ross, a former Albemarle County police officer who is now a deputy at the Augusta County sheriff’s department, said that when he saw the plants on Cobbs’ property, they were supported by garden stakes and protected by deer netting. He said Cobbs reacted to the officers as though he knew the plants were on the property.

“I can’t remember his exact wording. He either said, ‘I didn’t think you’d care about these few plants’ or ‘I didn’t think you’d see these few plants,’” Ross testified.

Quatrara submitted a photograph of the two plants to evidence, but did not have any photographic evidence of the netting or stakes Ross described. Ross’ fellow eradication team members Bradley McManaway and Dwayne Tuggle, both special agents with the Virginia State Police, failed to mention any of the gardening equipment during their respective testimonies.

Paul Belonick, one of Cobbs’ defense attorneys, asked that Higgins admit a document to the record indicating that marijuana plants can grow naturally in the wild, and that so-called “ditch weed” is often found by drug enforcement officials during investigations.

Higgins denied his motion, but allowed Belonick to ask officials if they had ever encountered ditch weed. Tuggle, the only official asked, said he had not.

In closing arguments Belonick questioned the consistency of McManaway and Tuggle’s testimonies.

McManaway, who was on the ground throughout the operation, said that he and Cobbs walked together towards the marijuana plants, implying that Cobbs knew the plants were growing on his property and where.

Tuggle, who was in the helicopter that spotted the plants on Cobbs’ property, said that he was directing McManaway to the plants from the air. Quatrara argued that Tuggle stopped giving directions after McManaway began speaking with Cobbs.

“500 feet up in the air he was able to see [the plants],” Belonick said. “You know what he didn’t see? Anything covering the plants.”

In the end, both sides asked jurors to use their “common sense” during deliberations.

General District Judge William G. Barkley sentenced Cobbs to 10 days in jail and suspended his driver’s license for six months when the case was heard in the county’s General District Court in October. Cobbs filed an appeal within days.

Belonick and Andrew Sneathern, Cobbs’ other attorney, represented him on behalf of the Rutherford Institute, a local nonprofit civil liberties organization that said Cobbs' Fourth Amendment rights were violated by having his property searched without a warrant.