Mom to face felony charge in marijuana case

[n2doc]

BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Rochester Hills mother turned in by her 19-year-old daughter for growing marijuana is scheduled to appear in an Oakland County court Thursday to face a felony charge.

After her daughter turned her in Oct. 11, Christina Consolo, 40, was arraigned Oct. 13 on one count of manufacturing and delivering marijuana in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office announced today. Magistrate Marie Soma ordered a $5,000 personal bond.

If convicted, she could face up to four years in jail and $20,000 in fines. But she could be placed on probation if she has no prior convictions, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office.

Consolo’s preliminary examination is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

At the home on the 2200 block of Warrington Road, police found a 6-foot-tall marijuana plant growing in the living room, dried marijuana hanging in the basement, a digital scale, packaging material, pipes and a marijuana grinder. Police also confiscated two handguns and a shotgun.

http://www.freep.com/article/20091019/NEWS03/91019037/1320/Mom-to-face-felony-charge-in-marijuana-case

One freakin' plant! They sure are tackling that crime problem up there :sarcasm:

[FiveGoodMen]

1. There's a very simple solution to this

I'll give you a hint. Finish this famous phrase: "Land of the _________"

[Sinti]

7. Free - but that was before the founding of the Internation Megacorporatoin Empire n/t

[hootinholler]

9. Free hell

Those megacorporations have paid good money for the country.

-Hoot

[krispos42]

25. Puritans!

Do I win a prize?

[Forkboy]

38. Yeah, don't have kids.

:)

[RKP5637]

2. What an outlandish waste of taxpayer money! This lady is such a ...

harden criminal and a menace to society. Does this country have its priorities screwed up or what. I get so tired of the BS here. No wonder our jails are full... jails are good business in America. What a F'ed up place this can often be...

[Bozita]

8. I'm assuming the Oakland County Prosecutor's office has both time and money to burn.

Must really be a crime-free zone there in Oakland County.

[dysfunctional press]

3. there must have been more than one plant involved...

it said that there was dried marijuana hanging in the basement- maybe she had been growing outside, and that was the harvest.

one plant won't get you felony charges.
here in illinois- you can have up to five plants and it's still a misdemeanor.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. In Alaska you can have up to 25 plants

and not get charged at all. :smoke:

[intheflow]

16. I was thinking the same thing.

Also, the article mentions two confiscated guns, but were they legal? It must have been more than just what's being reported. Still... what a fucked up family!

[Euromutt]

28. Not necessarily

To the best of my understanding, you can trim some leaves off the plant and process those without harvesting the entire plant, just like you can take some roses off a rose bush without uprooting the whole bush. So the dried leaves in the basement might have come off the one plant.

Of course, that kind of amount is insufficient to conduct anything you might reasonably call "trafficking," so it was probably just for her personal use. And bear in mind that charges do not equal conviction; maybe the sheriff of Oakland County has a particularly knee-jerk attitude concerning marijuana.

[dysfunctional press]

35. leaves? the leaves are pretty much useless- what they want is the buds.

and yes- you can trim the buds off without killing the plant-
but one plant most likely wouldn't provide a felony level of quantity.

[Euromutt]

37. Sorry, that's what I meant; thank you

I'm originally from the Netherlands, so where cannabis is concerned, I know the Dutch terminology but not necessarily the English.

[benEzra]

36. One plant plus a gun in the house (even if otherwise lawfully owned) will get you a felony. (n/t)

[notadmblnd]

4. some daughter.

[RKP5637]

6. Yeah, agree, that's what I was thinking too earlier. Who needs enemies when...

you have a kid like that...

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. Madness!

[Libertas1776]

10. If I were her,

I'd have somebody plant some weed on the daughter. Yes, I am fiendish like that

[depakid]

11. Sure wouldn't want anything to do with the daughter

Personally or professionally.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

19. So it's okay to have unsecured handguns if you deal drugs?

[depakid]

27. Guess that's the argument she'll want to make when prospective employers

look her name up on google.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

34. And you see no hypocrisy in your position?

[vadawg]

32. rofl i think people missed that part and the packaging materials, scales etc

i have a feeling this women was punting the weed and the guns were involved in the business side of the venture...

[Flaneur]

42. Of course you have that feeling. You're a cop.

Ooh, scales! Well, I have a scale, too. It ensures that I get what I pay for.

Ooh, packaging materials! They're otherwise known as sandwich bags.

So the middle-aged suburban lady growing a couple of pot plants is out cruising the streets dealing dope and packing heat. Get back to me when you have any evidence of that.

[Flaneur]

41. Lots of households have guns.

This lady was growing one plant, maybe had harvested a few more.

I don't see any evidence that she dealt drugs, other than that she had a scale. Well, I have a scale, too.

And I don't see any evidence that her guns had anything to do with her growing pot.

Other than that, good question. Is it okay to send someone to federal prison on a five-year mandatory minimum sentence because he grew pot while he had a gun in the house? That's current law. I think it's draconian.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

43. The pot should be legal as should the gun.

Provided of course the person possessing the pot is not a convicted felon. If you are going to grow pot under the current laws, I would suggest not possessing any firearms.

[eridani]

12. My BIL quit growing pot when my nephew hit adolescence.

He knew perfectly well that one teenaged hissy fit would probably have that result.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. My daughter would say...

"Share, please?"

[JVS]

24. It sounds like someone pissed her daughter off

[Blue_In_AK]

26. That would be my guess.

Brutal...

[Poll_Blind]

15. Maybe daughter didn't want mom living the dealer lifestyle.

I saw a couple of responses in this thread that this might've been based on a teenage hissy fit. And maybe it was. But if mom's got two handguns, a shotgun and a digital scale for weighing it out, it's probably not for personal use.

Manufacturing and selling illegal drugs is a lifestyle not known for its happy endings.

Maybe the kid had been trying to get her mother to stop, mom wouldn't, and this was her way of stopping her.

Just another possibility.

[Sirveri]

17. Except it was only one plant.

"police found a 6-foot-tall marijuana plant growing in the living room"

Emphasis mine.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

21. and scales, pipes, packaging, and guns.

[Fumesucker]

23. It said digital scales..

I have digital scales, they include a body fat monitor..

I also have a box of baggies in the pantry for leftovers and sandwiches.

Thankfully I don't have any firearms so I guess I'm safe. I do have a high powered pellet gun with a 3-9x scope on it I keep up my target practice with..

You are the one who is all in favor of citizens having guns. I guess that's only for certain values of "citizen", eh?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

30. If only I had ever said I was in favor of all citizens having guns. Nice try though.

That fact is people that don't want guns shouldn't be forced to have them and convicted felons are barred from possessing firearms, which is the way it should be. People who engage in criminal activity shouldn't have firearms. Whether or not that activity should be illegal is for another discussion.

[Euromutt]

29. I have a digital scale too

A small one, theoretically suitable for weighing out portions of a couple of grams of cannabis. Except it's actually a kitchen scale, and we use it for measuring flour and other recipe ingredients. My wife also has a supply of small ziploc bags she uses to store jewelry (and which I sometimes bum to store screws, springs and other small parts).

If the county sheriff is knee-jerk enough about marijuana to raid a house and file felony charges over a single plant, it would be consistent that the sheriff's dept. would present anything they found in the house in as sinister a manner as possible. Thus, ziploc bags become "packaging materials," a digital scale could serve no other purpose than to portion bags of marijuana for retail, etc. Of course, the presence of pipes is evidence of use, not of trafficking, and I'm inclined to say that if you have a couple of weed pipes in the house and only one plant, it's a strong indicator that Ms Consolo was growing for her personal use only.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

31. I would agree with your assessment.

[krabigirl]

18. Hmmm...not her business. Her daughter is 19, no longer a minor.

I don't want my parents involved in a dangerous religious cult (they are very extreme fundie Catholics), but it's not my business.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. You could call the police, I'm guessing they won't do anything.

[Fumesucker]

22. I guess daughter is going to be moving out to her own place now..

Heh, so many children are staying with their parents until their thirties or later these days, it's nice to see offspring make the choice to bear the cost of their own lodgings with no help from the parents.

[gatorboy]

33. Why move?

If mom's going to jail, she'll have the place to herself!

[Forkboy]

39. Someone still has to pay the bills.

The electric company doesn't care about any of this, they just want their money. :)

[Euromutt]

40. Unless the sheriff's dept. confiscates the house

Since it was being used in the commission of a drug offense, and all that.