- View PhotoAssociated Press/Orlin Wagner - Bob Harte stands next to his now shut down indoor garden in the basement of his home in Leawood, Kan., Friday, March 29, 2013. Harte and his wife Adlynn, who are former CIA employees,
Related Content
View PhotoAddie and Bob Harte share photos …
View PhotoBob Harte demonstrates where police …
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 Kansas 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."
Pilate said no one in the Harte family uses illegal drugs and no charges were filed. The lawsuit noted Adlynn Harte, who works for a financial planning firm, and Robert Harte, who cares for the couple's children, each were required to pass rigorous background checks for their previous jobs working for the CIA in Washington, D.C. Pilate said she couldn't provide any other details about their CIA employment.
Pilate said any details gleaned from the open records suit could be used in a future federal civil rights lawsuit.
"You can't go into people's homes and conduct searches without probable cause," Pilate said.
Leawood City Administrator Scott Lambers said Friday that he couldn't comment on pending litigation. The sheriff's office also had no comment.
"Obviously with an ongoing lawsuit we are not able to talk about any details of it until it's been played out in court," said Johnson County Deputy Tom Erickson.
It ain't just in Kansas that they have the patsy monkeys wearing black robes and sitting on high benches, signing whatever papers are placed in front of them.
ReplyDeleteA number of years ago, a client of mine was served with an Order to Show Cause, signed by a now-retired judge (known for his affinity to ethanol), based upon a bald (and absolutely false) statement that a particular partnership agreement provided for such and such.
The New York Judge's Bench Book does state that if a contract is alleged, then there should be a copy of that contract or an explanation as to why no copy is available. Neither was in the papers submitted to the clown on the bench.
The papers were served on my client at about 8:30 PM, and I had to pull an all-nighter to draw up the answering papers and take the train out from Long Island into Brooklyn the next morning to appear before a different judge, who himself had, a few years previously, been discredited and suspended from the bench for various conflicts of interest and acts of fraud, and who, I do believe, was bribed by my client's former partner.
Ah, some of those courts have the best judges money can buy.
This is going to become the 'new' norm... And I truly hope they take them to court and clean their clocks!!!
ReplyDelete