Pot grower pleads, gets 1,000 hours of community service; Bridgeville man to forfeit $40K, stay out of jail

◼ Pot grower pleads, gets 1,000 hours of community service; Bridgeville man to forfeit $40K, stay out of jail - Times Standard

The head of a marijuana cultivation operation near Bridgeville will serve 1,000 hours of community service and forfeit almost $40,000 in cash -- but stay out of jail -- under a plea agreement reached this week with the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office.

Thomas William Morgan, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bulgaria also known as Taco Nikolov Budnakov, was arrested Oct. 19 and charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana for sales after the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office reported finding 191 pounds of dried marijuana, more than 60 pounds of processed marijuana buds, a handgun and the cash.

On Wednesday, Morgan pleaded guilty to a felony charge of maintaining a residence for the purpose of marijuana cultivation in an agreement that stipulated to his forfeiting the cash, allowing the firearm to be destroyed and doing 1,000 hours of community service in order to stay out of jail....

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said in a statement emailed to the Times-Standard that it's appropriate for Morgan to do the equivalent of more than six months worth of community service work rather than jail time.

”The way I look at it is people who broke the law but are not dangerous shouldn't be sitting in jail at county expense, they should be out in the street doing work,” he said. “There's plenty of need, and plenty of work to do.”

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