The two separate cases in Idaho that had captured the attention of the entire hemp industry have been closed with prosecutors agreeing plea deals with the accused drivers. The drivers pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for their freedom and lighter sentences.
The first case involved Dennis Palmarchuk who was arrested and detained in Boise County for five days after the truck he was driving was found to contain about 6,700 pounds of hemp. He was charged with marijuana trafficking and his trial was set to begin on October 2.
However, a plea deal with the prosecutors resulted in the driver, who was trucking cargo to Big Sky Scientific, a Colorado-based hemp processor, accepting the lesser charges of having an improper bill of lading and transporting an improperly permitted load.
Palmarchuk was sentenced to 180 days in jail for the charges he pleaded guilty to. However, 175 of those days were suspended and he was credited for the five days that he served during detention as he awaited his trial. This means that the will not step foot in jail after his sentencing.
Additionally, the driver was fined $1,000, but half of that fine was suspended. Palmarchuk is also to meet the court costs for the case. He is to serve a year of unsupervised probation and he will also pay restitution amounting to $1,860.
The second interstate hemp transportation case involved Erich Eisenhart and Andrew D’Addario. They were taken into custody on April 12 last year after their truck was found carrying 900 hemp plants through Idaho.
These two were sentenced to 180 days in jail, but 178 of those days were suspended. They were credited the two days they served in detention. Like Palmarchuk, these two drivers were also fined $1,000 and were required to meet court costs. They also agreed to restitution totaling $4,138.79 and unsupervised probation of two years.
All the three drivers waived their right to appeal the judgment and sentence, and they accepted that there were legitimate reasons for them to face the more serious charges which were dropped under the plea deal.
The plea deal documents indicate that while the federal government legalized hemp, the USDA hasn’t released its hemp rules, and until those rules are in place, Idaho reserved the right to regard hemp as a controlled substance until the state changes its laws.
To the credit of the prosecutors (and perhaps the good work done by the attorneys for the drivers), the plea deal documents indicate that there were several mitigating factors in favor of the accused drivers. For example, all the drivers believed that it was legal to transport hemp through Idaho since the plants are legal in the state of origin and the state where the delivery was to be made. The prosecutors agreed that this mix up may have resulted from the misrepresentation of the legality of the cargo by the employers of the drivers.
Experts agree that while industry players like Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTCQB: MCOAD) and Neutra Corp. (OTCQB: NTRR) are pleased that the drivers are now free, the industry would be less jittery if all states had fairly uniform hemp laws.
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