Sharbot Lake man to serve 45 days over 911 mistake

Devin Kennedy, 28, of Sharbot Lake, pleaded guilty to production of an illegal substance (Marijuana) at Sharbot Lake Criminal Court on Monday and he was sentenced to a 45 day jail term, to be served on weekends at the Napanee detention centre.

OPP officers attended at the residence that Kennedy shares with Sherri Wylie and Marion Vanalstine after receiving a 911 call from Wylie. As reported in the synopsis of the case that was provided by the Crown, police attended at the house that was associated with Wylie’s phone, and found there were vehicles on the site, and music was coming from the garage, but they did not find any people. As they were looking around they noticed marijuana plants at the side of the garage and in the back yard as well, a total of 25 mature plants with “mature bud” in the words of crown counsel.

With Kennedy’s plea, charges against Wylie and Vanalstine were dropped. Because Kennedy has a record, the 45 day plea deal was made and the matter was neatly resolved.

But not quite. As Kennedy was about to leave, Sherry Wylie stepped forward and asked if she could address Judge Griffin, who said yes.

“Why did you call 911,” Griffin asked Wylie.

“I called 911 because a drunk, an alcoholic, was attacking me over at a property on Crow Lake. I spent 6 minutes telling the dispatcher where I was and where to send the OPP, but they just looked at the address where my phone was registered and went there. Until this day, six months later, they still haven’t gone to where I called them looking for help, but they kept going back to my house,” she said.

“So, the only reason they found the marijuana was because they went to the wrong house,” Judge Griffin said.

“That’s right,” said Wylie, “none of this should be happening.”

“But you do know that growing marijuana is illegal,” said Griffin.

“That marijuana was for my back, it’s only 1% THC and 10% cannabinoid. It’s for pain relief.”

“Have you looked into a getting a prescription from a doctor to make it legal,” said Griffin.

“With legalization coming anyway, I didn’t want to bother dealing with the doctor’s and all that,” she said.

“This is a pretty interesting case, after all,” said the Judge. “Well, ma’am, the charges against you have been dropped, so that’s something.”

Devin Kennedy was transported to Napanee for processing and will begin serving his sentence this weekend.