Vermonter.com

Is that pot smoke or corruption we smell in the Windsor County air?

According to a recent story on WCAX, Vermont’s Attorney general is questioning why a lawyer and acting judge is getting a break for growing felony amounts of marijuana.

Attorney General Bill Sorrell is concerned that Windsor prosecutor Bobby Sand is sending the wrong signal about justice in Vermont.

The case started last month when game wardens discovered 36 pot plants and two-and-half pounds of marijuana in the home of Windsor lawyer Martha Davis, 61, according to court records. She also serves on occasion as an acting judge in the Windsor Family Court. The wardens charged her with felony marijuana possession and cultivation. Those charges carry potential penalties of 30 years in prison and a fine up to 1-million dollars.

But County Prosecutor Bobby Sand initially amended the charges to a far less serious misdemeanor and the last week agreed not to charge Davis with any crime. Instead, he permitted her to enter the Court Diversion Program. That means all record of the charges will be permanently expunged if she successfully completes community service assignments.

Vermont’s Attorney General Bill Sorrell says giving the lawyer a break like that for serious felony charges sends the wrong message.

“If all first-time marijuana possessors and cultivators in Windsor County are treated with Diversion the I guess that’s the county in which you ought to be in that business although you run the risk that federal authorities would come in or the Attorney General’s Office would come into the case,” responded Sorrell.