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Nevada County marijuana case ends with plea to misdemeanor charge

Alan Riquelmy
ariquelmy@theunion.com

A former vice president of Hometown Hydroponics pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drug charge and was sentenced to three years of probation, prosecutors said.

Scott Denty, 38, pleaded Tuesday, Sept. 5, to a misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. A count of cultivating marijuana, initially a felony, was dropped, said Chris Walsh, assistant district attorney.

The cultivating marijuana charge was a felony when Denty was arrested in 2015. It became a misdemeanor after the November passage of Proposition 64, District Attorney Cliff Newell said.



“There were a large amount of plants on the property, but they were all accounted for,” Denty said Wednesday, Sept. 6. “I feel that I got railroaded.”

Mackey’s attorney, Erica Treeby, couldn’t be reached for comment.



According to authorities, Denty was arrested in June 2015 after detectives served a search warrant on his Nevada County property. They seized almost 1,600 suspected marijuana plants.

Denty was one of a handful of defendants in separate cases who argued sheriff’s Detective Jason Mackey failed to perform his job properly.

Denty filed a motion to suppress, which a judge denied. He withdrew a motion claiming outrageous governmental conduct when a witness failed to appear on his behalf, which led to the no contest plea, Walsh said.

Mackey, formerly the subject of an internal investigation, was cleared of misconduct.

“He might have been sloppy at times,” said Walsh of the detective.

 


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