A 36-year-old Whitefish man arrested in

2009 after law enforcement officers found an illegal,

indoor-marijuana growing operation at his residence on Iowa Avenue

recently received an eight-year suspended sentence.

Flathead County District Court Judge

Stewart Stadler sentenced Johnathan Hancock on Dec. 22 to a

four-year suspended sentence for his illegal grow operation and a

concurrent four-year suspended sentence for criminal distribution

of dangerous drugs, both felonies. Hancock also was ordered to pay

a $1,000 net fine for each count, with all but $500 suspended.

Hancock originally faced up to 10 years

in prison and a $50,000 fine for the grow operation and one year to

life and a fine up to $50,000 for each of two counts of

distribution. The second distribution count was dismissed after

Hancock accepted a plea bargain in October.

According to court records, five

officers from the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force and two agents

from the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation served Hancock

with a search warrant at his home on Sept. 8, 2009.

Upstairs, the officers found 30

marijuana plants growing in one room and 25 larger plants in

another room. They also allegedly found two large bags with dried

marijuana in a freezer in the basement; a Lone Ranger lunch box in

the master bedroom holding $10,650 in cash; drug ledgers, paperwork

and drug paraphernalia in the kitchen; and firearms and a

motorcycle.

An investigation of Hancock’s business

began after officers received information that he was growing and

selling marijuana. Two agents from the Division of Criminal

Investigation arranged for a confidential informant to purchase an

ounce of marijuana from Hancock on two occasions at $300 per

ounce.

An electronic monitoring device was

used on both occasions and when the search warrant was served five

days after the second marijuana sale. Using the audio recordings,

Hancock’s lawyer, Thane Johnson, successfully argued in a motion to

suppress evidence that his client’s Miranda rights were

violated.

During his initial interview, Hancock

told the agents he was bipolar and had been under medication for 10

years, and he requested an attorney, Johnson said, but the agents

continued the interview. Hancock also told the agents about the

plants growing in the upstairs bedrooms and the cash in the lunch

box prior to his Miranda rights being read, Johnson said.

Flathead County Deputy Attorney Kristin

Roset later conceded the defendant’s motion to suppress all

statements made after Hancock asked for an attorney.

Johnson also introduced evidence that

Hancock had applied for a Montana medical marijuana card in October

2009, after his arrest. And Stadler agreed to Johnson’s request to

subpoena medical records from the Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic, in

Whitefish, for a medical marijuana patient Hancock claimed he

supplied marijuana to.

Hancock has no prior criminal history

in Montana, but he pleaded guilty in Michigan to a misdemeanor

assault charge in 1997 and to a misdemeanor drug possession charge

in 2001.