WEST SALEM TOWNSHIP —
Thomas L. McKenzie is 64, an age when most people are winding down their careers and reviewing their retirement options.
He had a good job with a local hospital, had raised three kids and sings in his church choir, his attorney said.
“He’s never been any trouble,” said attorney Randall T. Hetrick.
But, there was the little matter of the marijuana McKenzie was growing on property he owned in West Salem Township.
“Why did it happen?” Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson asked McKenzie at a sentence hearing Sept. 5.
“Stupidity, I guess,” offered McKenzie, who lost his job as a result of the charges.
McKenzie is on disability for several medical issues and he noted he and his co-defendant, Gary H. Mutdosch, 58, had both battled cancer.
No matter the complications associated with cancer, there is “no justification” for self-medicating with an illegal drug, Dobson said. To do so, “disgraces” those who have had cancer and battled it through legal means, he said.
“At 64, this was a really bad idea,” Dobson said.
McKenzie said the idea was a “joint effort” with Mutdosch. It was unclear if he was aware of the pun in his answer.
Dobson sentenced McKenzie to 9 to 18 months in jail, although he made McKenzie eligible for house arrest.
A day later, Judge Christopher J. St. John sentenced Mutdosch to 9 to 23 months, also making him eligible for house arrest.
Neither man was listed Sunday as being inmates of the jail.
Greenville-West Salem Township police said they were alerted in August 2011 that pot was being grown at 102 Tanner Road, West Salem, the home McKenzie shares with his wife Gaylynn; and 106 Tanner, a home McKenzie owns, but is lived in by Mutdosch.
Police said they found several gallon-sized bags of pot at 106, along with $3,500, a handgun, a digital scale and other drug paraphernalia. They seized pot plants beneath grow lights at 102, along with pots, potting soil and drug paraphernalia.
Outside of 102, 48 pot plants were found growing in a ravine.
McKenzie pleaded guilty June 5 to possession of 48 plants with intent to deliver.
Mutdosch pleaded guilty July 16 to possession with intent to deliver and/or manufacture.
Gaylynn McKenzie, 56, pleaded guilty Dec. 27 to a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia before District Judge Brian Arthur, Greenville, who suspended a 3-month jail sentence and fined her $250 and costs. She also lost her job as a result of the case.
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