Accused Priest River pot growers cop deals

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man accused of cultivating marijuana in an underground growing operation pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Carl Wayne Cliff pleaded guilty to manufacturing marijuana, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The agreement recommends a suspended prison sentence of one to five years and up to three months incarceration in the county jail, court records indicate.

Cliff, who is scheduled to be sentenced next month, told District Judge Steve Verby the marijuana was strictly for personal use. In a separate but related plea agreement, Cliff’s wife, Marte, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of marijuana possession, a misdemeanor. She was given a suspended jail sentence, records indicate.

The couple entered the pleas during their arraignment in 1st District Court on charges of marijuana trafficking, which stemmed from a March 6 search of their home north of Priest River. Agents from the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the couple’s home on Blue Lake Road and discovered 45 live plants and 7 pounds of harvested marijuana, court documents alleged.

The drugs were found in underground grow rooms created beneath a storage building. The grow operation was accessed by a makeshift elevator concealed by a floor drain grate, according to a deputy’s testimony in a prior hearing.

Joseph I. Mein, Marte Cliff’s defense counsel, told Verby on Monday his client had no involvement with the operation apart from knowing it existed. He said Marte Cliff was guilty of “passivity.”

Marte Cliff, 60, admitted she should have stepped in to halt the growing operation, but said she looked the other way because her husband,a Vietnam veteran, was using the pot to self-medicate his depression and chronic knee pain.

“I pretended I didn’t see what was going on,” Marte Cliff told Verby.

Deputy Prosecutor Louis Marshall said it was “plausible” the growing operation was a personal, not a commercial, endeavor.

Verby, noting Marte Cliff’s utter lack of a criminal record, imposed a suspended 60-day sentence and ordered her to complete 300 hours of community service. She was also placed on unsupervised probation for two years.

The couple’s home and vehicles are currently the subject of forfeiture proceedings being pursued by the state.