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TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that a Gloucester County man was sentenced
to state prison today for growing marijuana
plants in his home using hydroponic equipment
and grow lights.
According
to Director Taylor, Frank J. Harder III,
33, of Glassboro, was sentenced to five
years in state prison, including 18 months
of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court
Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. in Gloucester
County. Harder pleaded guilty on March 4
to a first-degree charge of maintaining
or operating a marijuana production facility.
Harder
was charged as the result of an investigation
by the New Jersey State Police Marijuana
Eradication Squad. The State Police uncovered
sophisticated indoor marijuana growing operations
in three separate homes: Harder’s
home, the home of a husband and wife in
Deptford, and the home of the wife’s
mother in Woodbury.
The
Deptford couple, Paul J. “Chip”
Trace and his wife, Charlotte P. Trace,
were previously sentenced to prison as a
result of the investigation. The couple
formerly owned and operated Tasty Harvest
Hydroponics in Deptford. Hydroponics is
the cultivation of plants in water that
contains dissolved nutrients, instead of
in soil. Harder was an employee in the store.
All three homes were rigged with equipment
from the hydroponics store.
On
April 9, Judge Marshall sentenced Paul Trace,
45, to five years in state prison, including
two years of parole ineligibility, and Charlotte
Trace, 49, to five years in prison, including
21 months of parole ineligibility. The Traces
also pleaded guilty on March 4 to maintaining
or operating a marijuana production facility.
Charlotte Trace’s mother, Miriam Andrew,
76, was sentenced to three years of probation
on April 9. She pleaded guilty on March
4 to a second-degree charge of manufacturing
marijuana, admitting she permitted her daughter
to grow marijuana in her home.
Deputy
Attorney General Daniel Bornstein prosecuted
the cases for the Division of Criminal Justice
Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau and represented
the state at today’s sentencing.
When
the State Police executed a search warrant
at the Traces’ home on First Avenue
on Nov. 20, 2008, they discovered two indoor
growing areas containing high-tech marijuana
cultivation equipment and 33 marijuana plants,
along with a bag containing nearly a pound
of marijuana.
The
State Police also executed search warrants
on Nov. 20, 2008 at the homes of Andrew
and Harder. They found 16 marijuana plants
growing in a hydroponic system in a second-floor
bedroom of Andrew’s home on Edith
Avenue in Woodbury, as well as a bag containing
approximately one-quarter pound of marijuana.
At
Harder’s home on North Main Street
in Glassboro, they found an elaborate hydroponic
cultivation system with 43 marijuana plants,
20 marijuana “clones” or cuttings,
and bags containing a total of approximately
2 pounds of marijuana.
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