Nov 6, 2008 9:24 pm US/Mountain
Man Faces Prison Time For Cutting 'Weeds'
Written by Brian Maass
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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Larry Plooster waited a year, then took matters into his own hands last summer, climbing over a 4-foot fence behind his house and snipping a pair of 5- to 7-foot tall sprouts himself.
CBS
Call him Larry the truck driver. Larry Plooster. An average American, no Colorado criminal record, is now facing a felony charge and possible prison time for going onto city property and cutting down what one expert says were weeds.
"I think this is totally ridiculous" Plooster said.
Plooster, a 49-year-old UPS driver, lives in Fort Lupton. He and his wife bought a two-story home next to the Coyote Creek golf course, a municipal course. While Plooster is not a golfer, he says he paid a premium for a lot with a view of the 13th green. But in recent years, undergrowth around a nearby pond began to obscure the Plooster's view of the green.
Plooster contacted golf course and city authorities requesting the growth be trimmed back. He says nobody did anything and he got the run around. So Plooster waited a year, then took matters into his own hands last summer, climbing over a 4-foot fence behind his house and snipping a pair of 5- to 7-foot tall sprouts himself.
He did it in daylight, piling the debris nearby. But when a golf course employee saw the debris, he called police to report a crime, believing someone had cut down cottonwood trees worth thousands of dollars.
Police interviewed Plooster, who admitted what he had done, saying he had just cut down "sucker growth," the equivalent of weeds. But one man's weed is another man's tree. Fort Lupton police arrested Plooster for felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor criminal trespass. He spent the night in the Weld County jail and had to post $20,000 bond the next day to gain his freedom.
"It was awful," Plooster said of his night in jail. He said when other prisoners asked him what he was in for, he told them, "I cut down two trees on a golf course. They laughed and couldn't believe it. I mean people are there for drugs and DUIs, and I'm there for cutting down two sucker trees. It was pretty hilarious really."
But after four months, three court appearances and mounting legal bills, the humor is starting to wear off. Last month, a certified arborist, Troy King of the American Tree Company, visited the scene of the alleged crime. In an Oct. 13 letter, King wrote, "It is in my opinion as a certified arborist that the trees/sucker growth in question that were removed by Mr. Larry Plooster were indeed water sprouts and sucker growth, not planted cottonwood trees."
King went on to write that the type of growth Plooster removed "can become a nuisance and must be thinned yearly and/or removed to maintain a safety issue ... it is my opinion that the water sprouts in question had no monetary value."
"It's just a pure waste of taxpayer money, that's all it is," said Plooster of the ongoing prosecution.
His lawyer, Martha Eskesen, calls the case "silly, unnecessary. It doesn't really rise to the level of a crime that requires someone to be arrested, incarcerated and to post $20,000 bond. There's more serious crime and I would hope Fort Lupton Police Department resources would be spent on more serious offenses."
Eskesen called the case "an example of a waste of public resources and taxpayer dollars."
Fort Lupton Police Chief Ron Grannis concedes "there's other things of more importance that may be occurring in the city," but he said when the police department received the complaint alleging thousands of dollars in city trees had been cut down, a felony crime, his department had no choice but to act.
"If you call us we come. We will come and take care of what they're complaining about. They pay our salary so I have to respond," Grannis said.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he was not aware of the case until CBS4 brought it to his attention.
"There's a better way of doing this than the courtroom," said Buck.
Buck said the spat between Fort Lupton and Larry Plooster should have simply been mediated and settled. He called the justice system "the wrong venue" for this disagreement. Buck said he would direct his staff to attempt to settle the dispute outside of the courtroom.
Still, Larry Plooster has a trial set for Dec. 8. He says he's unwilling to take a plea bargain because in his view, he did nothing wrong.
"They have to dismiss this case and I want it taken off my record; period."
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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