"It can't happen here!" Part 1 Chapter 8

Dustin Costa, 1964 graduate
of Calaveras High School

   by Dustin Costa, who is serving time in a Colorado Federal Prison for growing marijuana in California.

   Chapter 8

     My attorney pointed out that hiring an expert witness would be expensive and he didn't know whether the court would pay for them
or not.

   He asked me what it would take to convince me to take the plea deal. I thought for a moment and then said, "If the judge gives me court permission to cultivate, I'll take it."

   The prosecutor grumbled, but apparently he, (like my attorney) didn't want to take my case to trial, and he wound up going to the judge with my proposition.

  A few minutes later, I walked out of court after entering a no contest plea. My hippie attorney, in his $5 thrift shop suit and stained Mickey Mouse tie (I had no say so in his taste in clothing), literally skipped away from the bench to my side.

   He was grinning like an idiot while a disgusted-looking Judge Whiteside, in the Superior Court of Stanislaus County, looked on from is perch.

   My eccentric attorney and I had done it. I was probably the first person in the country to win court permission to cultivate marijuana.

  (to be continued)