The Ellis County Press: ECSO informant: Deputies pot story doesnt fly

ECSO informant: Deputies pot story doesnt fly
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Editor on 10/22/2009 11:53:00


STAFF REPORT
The Ellis County Press
WAXAHACHIE An informant who tipped off an Ellis County Sheriffs Office deputy on
one of the largest pot plant farms last month said Sheriff Johnny Brown's story
for the media doesn't fly.
The informant, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said he
noticed strange "crops" growing on property he owns east of Interstate Highway
45, where an estimated $8 million in pot plants were confiscated.
ECSO officials, before a local daily newspaper and several Dallas TV cameras and
reporters, carried the plot that a plane piloted by deputies originally made the
find.
The informant disputed that account.
A hunter who leases the informants land then notified ECSO deputy Bob Polley,
who then notified his superior officers in Waxahachie.
"The [hunter] is a neighbor of Polley's, so that's how the sheriff's department
originally became aware," the informant said, who believes the pot plants
belonged to a gang.
"There were a couple of county commissioners who weren't too pleased with this
story coming out right before a budget hearing that ECSO deputies sought to
implement the airplane program."
Sheriff Brown and his deputies and other top administration officials have
refused to comment on the informants account, but county officials noted at a
recent meeting "you don't hear much about the airplane in public anymore."