Two months after the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to ban indoor marijuana grows- medical marijuana card or not- the sheriff's office is cracking down on the first round of lawbreakers. Supervisors sent a strong message, voting to enforce the ordinance and the hefty fines.
The first round of fines have been issued following Fresno Counties ban on indoor marijuana gross and the penalties are steep;
$30,000 for one Kerman man and $43,000 for another woman.
Phaett Holapatiphone, fined for growing marijuana, says, " I don't want to be stuck with a $43,000 bill. If they gave me enough time for me to pull up my plants and I would have not got caught with it, then I would have done that."
Holapatiphone was busted back in February. Sheriff's deputies found 43 marijuana plants inside a tent in her mother's backyard near Sanger.
According to the new ordinance, each plant carries a fine of $1,000. Wednesday, supervisors acknowledged the seemingly stiff cost, but voted to enforce it anyway.
Sheriff Mims says, "They stuck to their guns. They were pretty adamant that they were going to make sure that they stand behind the ordinance that they passed several months ago, so the message to people in Fresno County is don't grow marijuana here."
Attorney Brenda Linder says the county is breaking the very law it enacted, pointing to a 15 day notice that was given to violators after deputies got rid of the marijuana plants themselves.
Linder says, "They gave them a citation, a 15 day notice, to pull the plants or suffer administrative penalties. The plants were pulled before authorities left that day, so this hearing is not even in compliance with their own ordinance."
Linder says this should make the fees null and void, but Sheriff Mims says the solution is as simple as new paperwork, saying she will make sure the language in the notice is changed to be less confusing.
Linder says she plans to take the county to court.
Meanwhile, violators will be responsible for paying the fees. If the fees are not paid, a lien could be placed on the property where the marijuana was found.