New York State DEC

[zach1]

I've been growing out doors for 4 years now and it finally happened I got busted. I went out to water my plants this morning when i was coming back to my jeep all i saw was a line of cop cars. I sat in the woods for a good hour watching them but they weren't going any wheres. I finely back into the woods and came out on the road where they could see me. I walked down to my jeep and confronted them I tried to say i was there hiking but they saw right throw my BS. There ended up being 1 sheriff, 4 NYSDEC, and a K9 unit. The sheriff was actually pretty good about the whole thing he was joking around telling me i should grow indoors its a lot easier. The sheriff only wrote me an appearance ticket for unlawful possession of marijuana i didn't think that was bad for 37 plants. The DEC on the other hand wasn't so nice this is what they wrote me.

1.Using state land for privet revenue
2.Dumping garbage on state lands (water buckets)
3.Engaging in activity violating the penal law-Growing maijuana
4.Using state land for agricultural purposes
5.Cutting of trees on state land
6.Unlawful disposal of solid waste (buckets and cold frame material)

My ? is dose anyone have experience with the DEC I asked the officer what he thought the tickets would cost and he just laughed and said a lot. I tried looking it up online and all i could found was poaching violations those weren't to bad but nothing on my charges. I guess I have to look on the positive side and say at lest i'm not in jail. I'm just scared to find out what all thees tickets are going to cost 7 in total.

 

[redivider]

wow you joined in 2009 and only have 1 post???

that is admirable....

but anyways this is very important: what did you admit to??

think about it REAAALLY carefully, cops take really good notes because good cases cover a lot of details. poor cases leave details out....

if you did NOT admit at any time to ANY wrong doing you still have an affirmative defense. they'll let you know on discovery what charges you are facing and exactly what the evidence against you is.

if they don't have any sort of surveillance linking you DIRECTLY to the grow site, AND you denied denied denied, then you still have a good defense: you wanted to take a walk in the woods and stumbled on the marijuana grow site and ran back to your car as fast as possible.

if when they 'saw through the bs' you admitted to ANYTHING then you fucked up and you are going to jail.....

 

[zach1]

Ya I've been hiding in the shadows for a for a long time i never had anything worth posting until now. Back to what you asked tho I denied as much as i could but like i said they had a K9 unit there. The dog lead them to the plants and they found my foot prints at the grow site.
I had a unique style of combat boot on. At that point it was just to obvious you could tell i had been walking back and forth from the water source. I stayed quiet throw the whole thing but the sheriff wrote a statement saying that i grow the plants and i did sign it. I'm not worried about jail the sheriff's ticket was a misdemeanor and the DEC tickets were marked traffic violation. None of the officers said any thing about jail just that the DEC charges were going to be crazy..

 

[redivider]

the officers do not have to tell you the truth. that's what you need to understand. lies by the police during a criminal investigation is a supreme court upheld technique. the cops do NOT decide who goes to jail, the JUDGE does. this stuff is basic man.....

you signed the paper?? you are probably going to get fucked. you basically gave them a signed confession of a crime.

they only had proof that you were walking around the grow site, like i said, there's an affirmative defense that you were walking around the area, that DOES NOT MEAN THE PLANTS ARE YOURS.

the footprints are NOT evidence of wrongdoing. you were walking around and you stumbled upon the site and you left as quickly as possible.

that was until you signed that paper..... good luck.

 

[redivider]

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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. you signed your freedom away.

 

[zach1]

If i had the time and money for lawyers it would have been nice to fight with them. But at a certain point it was obvious what i was getting
charged with whether or not i cooperated with them. Had i not signed the statement there in the woods they would of towed my jeep and taken me to the police station and held/questioned me for who knows how long. Although they didn't find me at the plants the dog going from my jeep right to the plants was just to much. There was no way i was walking out of there by denying it.

 

[redivider]

there's no way your walking out of this now.

they were not going to take your jeep because they wouldn't be able to prove it was being used in the commission of a crime if you fought the charge and were found innocent.

now you give them the ability to find you guilty and have them seize that shit anyways.....

 

[redivider]

at the very minimum you are now for sure going to be put on probation for god knows how long, which means they can drug test you whenever htey want, they can enter your home whenever they want, everytime your in a car there's ZERO expectation of privacy, and if you are caught ever again even running a red light, the cop can call your PO and have them harass your ass for x or y reason.....

 

[zach1]

I didn't think they were going to seize the jeep just that they were defiantly going to take me in for questioning and would of impounded it on me. The marijuana charges seemed miner same as if you were caught with a small amount just possession not cultivation. The two illegal dumping charges they said were a min. of $1500 each they wouldn't tell me what the other charges cost. I was just wondering if any one else had similar charges from a grow.

 

[a mongo frog]

i think not going to jail is a bounus all in itself. i mean lets get serious here, u get busted for growing and u dont go to jail.
you should play the power ball or the lotto or some shit. u should hit the winning ticket.

 

[zach1]

at the very minimum you are now for sure going to be put on probation for god knows how long, which means they can drug test you whenever htey want, they can enter your home whenever they want, everytime your in a car there's ZERO expectation of privacy, and if you are caught ever again even running a red light, the cop can call your PO and have them harass your ass for x or y reason.....

I could live with probation better then jail i guess. But if they were going to do some thing that drastic wouldn't they have arrested me and make me post bail not just let go on an appearance ticket.

 

[redivider]

the reason he didn't go to jail is because they couldn't definetly say that those plants they found were his.

i think now you are facing around 17k in b.s. charges they were able to pin on you b/c you wanted to.

compare that to the 250 dollars or so it costs to get an impounded car out.... is your time REALLY that important that you couldn't sweat it out in a interview room for a few hours??? who are you?? kim kardashian????

 

[zach1]

i think not going to jail is a bounus all in itself. i mean lets get serious here, u get busted for growing and u dont go to jail.
you should play the power ball or the lotto or some shit. u should hit the winning ticket.

Ya over all i think it went as good as it could have just going to cost me some serious money. the sheriff said all New York wants is the money what do they have to gain by paying for me to stay in jail over a nonviolent crime.

 

[a mongo frog]

i hope its not 17 grand like redivider said. he does seem to know what hes talking about though.

 

[redivider]

i said 17k b/c i know a DUI can cost you around 10 grand in fees, depending on where you are and how it goes down. (including a good lawyer it could be more)

and your facing more than a single DUI...

talk to a lawyer n shit man.... the worst thing you did was sign that paper without talking to a lawyer first.

i honestly believe they had a shitty case at best and got you to sign the confession b/c without it a good lawyer would've gotten you off.....

 

[zach1]

the reason he didn't go to jail is because they couldn't definetly say that those plants they found were his.

i think now you are facing around 17k in b.s. charges they were able to pin on you b/c you wanted to.

compare that to the 250 dollars or so it costs to get an impounded car out.... is your time REALLY that important that you couldn't sweat it out in a interview room for a few hours??? who are you?? kim kardashian????

If you got the balls to stand up and be cocky to 6 cops and a dog in the middle of the woods your tougher then me. I didn't admit to any thing they didn't know all ready and they offered me a way to get out of there so i took it. I don't know about 17K i was hoping around 5k or so i just couldn't find any info on it.

 

[zach1]

i said 17k b/c i know a DUI can cost you around 10 grand in fees, depending on where you are and how it goes down.

it can cost you more than 20grand if you get a DUI because you crashed into somebody.....

I think they take DUI a little more serious then my charges i didn't endanger any ones life. There's no way your walking a way from a DUI your going to jail one way or another.

 

[redivider]

you don't have to be cocky. that's what you need to understand, confident does not mean cocky.

there's nothing a cop respects more than a person that knows their rights.

what they don't respect is pseudo-criminals who think they can act like an outlaw only to wither in fear when the shit hits the fan...... if you can't stand up to some cops in the woods, you won't make it in jail, and there's a chance you'll go to jail..... it falls on the DA, not the cops....

 

[zach1]

Given the Circumstances i don't think i could of handled it much better instead of siting home with a pile of tickets like i am now i'd be siting in a holding pen somewhere with an overwhelming amount of evidence agents me. I was never arraigned so a DA shouldn't be involved right? I just need to appear in town court for the charges i got they cant make up more when i show up i hope.

 

[redivider]

you seriously need to think about what you are saying.... there was no overwhelming evidence, because cops don't deal with criminals. they're in the business of locking you up for as long as they can. the more serious the charge the better it is for their career.

given the circumstances you handled it about as bad as you could've. you signed a confession. that's in the US constitution, you don't HAVE to incriminate yourself, but you can CHOOSE to do it.

the best way to have handled it was to keep your mouth shut and not signed a confession. if you don't believe me talk to a lawyer. when he/she finds out you signed a confession they'll ask you why you did such a moronic thing.... believe it...