Jail ordered in pot growing case

\SANDPOINT — A Washington state man caught growing marijuana in Cocolalla was sentenced on Monday to a month in the Bonner County Jail.

District Judge Steve Verby imposed a suspended prison term of one to three years in Jerrin Jeffrey Hoerner’s case and ordered him to serve 30 days of local incarceration.

Hoerner was also fined $1,000, ordered to pay $600 in costs and restitution and ordered to complete 300 hours of community service, according to documents in 1st District Court.

Hoerner, 25, of Spokane, Wash., was originally charged with marijuana trafficking after more than 20 pot plants were found growing on property he was renting on Vertical Drive in Cocolalla last September.

Hoerner insisted the pot was for his personal use, not commercial gain, when he was arrested, a point which Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson emphasized at sentencing.

In an agreement with the state, Hoerner pleaded guilty to a felony for cultivating the pot and Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank recommended a suspended prison term with a month of local incarceration.

Verby adopted the recommendations, but advded monthly drug tests for more than a year to monitor compliance with terms of his probation, court documents indicate.