Clerk who smelled pot on man’s tax payment called police

BY MICHAEL BOOTH


GAZETTE-TIMES REPORTER

A man arrested in December for growing 230 marijuana plants inside his south Corvallis home was sentenced Wednesday to 16 months in prison. Eric Brian Michaelis, 37, agreed to forfeit more than $65,000 seized by authorities.

Law enforcement officials said the drug bust may have been the largest indoor marijuana-growing operation in Benton County history. And it all started when an alert Benton County tax clerk noticed that the $600 in cash that Michaelis used to pay his taxes smelled an awful lot like marijuana.

“It’s safe to say that it’s at least the biggest indoor marijuana bust in the last 10 years,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Stringer. “The “Icebreaker” case (last summer) yielded more total cash forfeitures, but this is the largest from a single individual.”

Michaelis pleaded guilty to manufacturing a controlled substance and forfeited $65,600 that was found when police searched his home and a rented storage unit. The Benton County District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop an additional charge of drug possession in the plea bargain.

“I made a mistake,” Michaelis said in court Wednesday. “I knew my first night in jail that I was never going to do it again.”

Deputies were tipped off by a county tax clerk, who said that the $600 in cash that Michaelis used to pay his property tax bill smelled like marijuana.

When two detectives went to Michaelis’ home on Nov. 29, they reported that the smell of marijuana was overwhelming, even from the outside. Four days later, detectives from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and Corvallis Police Department’s joint Street Crimes Unit served a search warrant at Michaelis’ house at 525 S.E. Bridgeway Ave.

Inside they found almost every room in the three-bedroom house — with the exception of the kitchen, living room and bathroom — filled with marijuana plants, from seedlings to bushes that were four feet tall. They seized more than five pounds of dried marijuana and $2,933 in cash.

The operation included a back-up generator to power the grow lamps in case the electricity went out.

Michaelis cooperated with investigators at the time, but he reportedly did not tell them he had rented a Corvallis storage unit, where he stored more equipment and a safe.

A receipt seized during the search of Michaelis’ home listed him as the renter of a storage unit at Crystal Lake Public Storage. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators who went there the same day found more equipment and a safe, which contained several neat stacks of cash, amounting to $62,700, all labeled and stored in plastic freezer bags.

In court Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Janet Holcomb said that Michaelis had cooperated with investigators and that he did not have a prior criminal record. But she said that his illegal actions still had consequences for society.

“A lot of lives have been unfulfilled because of drugs and alcohol,” Holcomb said. “You played a part in that.”

Michaelis was sentenced to 16 months in prison, to be followed by two years of parole and drug treatment counseling.

Thirty percent to 40 percent of the cash goes to the seizing agency, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, and the rest is distributed among state and local drug prevention programs, Stringer said.

GT Reader Comments

The comments below are from readers of gazettetimes.com and in no way represent the views of the Gazette Times or Lee Enterprises.

C.McConnell wrote on Feb 7, 2008 4:09 PM: " It's interesting that the tax clerk turned him in because the cash he paid his taxes with smelled like pot. Now if he goes to jail, he'll become a burden on other tax payers, rather than continuing to be a tax payer himself. Gee, thanks tax clerk! " Christa wrote on Feb 8, 2008 9:30 AM: " He did pay property tax only. I am fairly sure that he did not pay income tax since all his dealings seem to have been in cash. So the $62,700 sound like a pretty good windfall to me considering how it is divided up between the different agencies. That being said I still think it's a waste of taxpayers money to go after pot growers. Concentrate on meth, heroin and prescription drug abuse. Those types of crimes cost taxpayers the most as evidenced by child abuse and neglect, property crimes, etc. Why put someone like him in jail when there are not enough jail beds for crack dealers and their minions. " mckernjo wrote on Feb 8, 2008 10:17 PM: " The GT printed the name of the person who turned in the would be LBCC shooter why not the tax clerk. " trkelley wrote on Feb 10, 2008 4:36 PM: " Mr. Michaelis is guilty of the blatant crime of providing goods and services to willing customers who need this medicine or enjoy this form of adult relaxation. He's a damn purentee American capitalist! Get real. Why not give him the chance to grow his business for the good of all including the tax weasels? The judge in this case needs to contemplate the concept of personal responsibility. People who have problems with drugs, alcohol, shopping, and gambling are not the fault of growers, brewers, malls and casinos. When will the government wise up, tax and legalize Oregon's number one cash crop? Save prison space for real criminals that hurt people. It's greatly ironic and that Mr. Michaelis was turned from a taxpayer to a tax burden by a tax agent trying to prove a point that makes no sense to most independently thinking Americans. We are not impressed. "

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