Man charged for too many pot plants
A 35-year-old Whitefish man has been charged with criminal manufacture of drugs after the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office seized 106 marijuana plants from his home in August.
Jeffrey McCutchan already facing a felony charge of assault with a weapon after he was arrested Aug. 15 following a domestic dispute with a woman on Antelope Trail in Whitefish.
The Flathead County Attorney’s Office filed the additional charge Monday.
Sheriff’s deputies noticed the pungent aroma of the plants when they arrived at McCutchan’s home, according to court documents.
He was arrested after the woman said he slapped her in the face, pushed her to the ground and retrieved a knife. She was cut on the hand and required six stitches after the two struggled for the knife, according to court documents.
The woman was taken to North Valley Hospital and a deputy stayed with McCutchan at his home while the Northwest Drug Task Force applied for and was granted a search warrant.
McCutchan, a medical marijuana caregiver, indicated plants found inside the home were part of a cooperative growing operation with other legal caregivers.
The people he said were working with him, however, denied having any part in the operation, according to court documents.
Montana’s medicinal marijuana law, passed in 2004, allows certain patients and caregivers to grow or possess a restricted number of plants after registering with the Department of Public Health and Human Services. The law limits to six the number of plants a patient or caregiver may possess.
The charges against McCutchan come after another man was arrested and charged in September for having too many plants at his home in U.S. 2 West in Marion where 84 plants were seized. William Clinton Blue has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Nov. 17.
McCutchan has pleaded not guilty to the assault with a weapon charge but has not yet been arraigned on the charge of felony criminal manufacture of dangerous drugs.
The maximum penalty for a conviction on the drug charge is 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine, while the assault allegation carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years.