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WILKES-BARRE – At 76 years old, convicted marijuana maker Liyidia Gurinovich on Monday called police liars and the court system “unjust.”
Then she was sent to prison for five years.
It wasn’t something Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. wanted to do to the elderly Ukrainian immigrant. But he had no option because Gurinovich and her son-in-law, Boris Petrov, were convicted of having 200 marijuana plants inside their Plymouth home. Some of their charges carried mandatory sentences of five years in prison.
“I have no choice in the matter,” the judge said.
He also sentenced Petrov, 57, to five years in prison on one of his charges, plus an additional 40 to 84 months in prison on other charges stemming from a police raid of their East Main Street home in 2005.
Police went to the home after a neighbor noticed a back door was left open. They soon learned the three-story home was organized into a high-tech marijuana manufacturing facility with solar lights, humidifiers, timers, fans and a ductwork system that ensured the plants had optimal growing conditions. Police seized 80 semi-mature plants roughly 3 feet high and 119 smaller plants a few inches high.
For more details read tomorrow’s Times Leader.