The medical marijuana garden of Tennessee patient Bernie Ellis was
raided on August 28, 2002, by Tennessee Marijuana Eradication Task
Force, made up of local and federal law enforcement. The task force
confiscated Ellis's 20-30 plants, along with a number of un-rooted
clones and other property. After inflating the number of plants, the
federal government charged Ellis with manufacturing more than 100
plants, carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years. In 2003, Ellis
agreed to a plea bargain, and in September 2005 was sentenced to 4
years of supervised release. The federal government is appealing Ellis's
"lenient" sentence, and Ellis continues to fight an asset forfeiture
action to take his Tennessee farm from him. Ellis is currently serving
18 months of his 4 years of supervised release in a half-way house in
Nashville. |
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