Forced to Work on Pot?

The controversy over children and the marijuana industry continues. Here is the story from the Ukiah Daily Journal.

A fly-over and a 14-year-old’s report of being forced to tend a marijuana garden led authorities to converge on a Robinson Creek Road home Friday, according to Robert Nishiyama, commander of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.

Authorities are seeking the home’s two main occupants, Kele Hoffman and Judiah Hoffman, who ran from the scene, according to Nishiyama. Authorities seized between 1,400 and 1,500 marijuana plants growing indoors and outside, 26 pounds of processed marijuana and a 70-kilowatt generator.

The Task Force arrested Sean Benjamin George Gordon, 30, of Ukiah, who was reportedly hired by the Hoffmans to help tend the garden, and was the only person found at the home.

Nishiyama said the Task Force spotted the marijuana garden while flying over the area and obtained a search warrant for the home, located in the 6600 block of Robinson Creek Road, but was waiting for the appropriate time to serve it.

“While we were waiting, we got a call from the Sheriff’s Office saying they were at the location,” Nishiyama said.

The teen allegedly had run away from home and reported being forced to trim the marijuana and tend the garden. Deputies were responding to the reported child abuse, found the garden and called the Task Force, according to Nishiyama.

The plants were in varying stages of maturity and ranged from new plants to 50 inches tall, he said. They were growing in an approximately 20-foot by 30-foot by 10-foot Conex shipping container outfitted with halogen lights, outside in pots and indoors.

Nishiyama said the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department plans to issue a warrant for Judiah Hoffman’s arrest in a marijuana-related case. Judiah Hoffman is also involved in an active court case in Los Angeles, Nishiyama said.

“We had a juvenile who was made to work against their will and wanted out,” Nishiyama said.

He said the teen was placed with relatives, and the investigation continues.

Questions I asked myself after reading this:

Given that marijuana is illegal, should a parent ever force a child to work in it?

If this farm were potatoes, would the child be considered abused?

It seems likely, though I don’t know the facts, that a child who went to the police must have been feeling really abused.

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15 Comments
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Mendo Mama
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Mendo Mama
13 years ago

Exactly why I kept my kids out of the entire pot scene while raising them, although there are many more examples of families who responsibly raise their children, keeping them out of it.

Staff
Member
13 years ago

I know really wonderful parents that feel that excluding their children from the life is lying to them. Some of them talk about happy memories formed together while working together.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Kym, thier whole lives are lies. They have to lie to stay out of jail. Either way these kids lives are based on nothing but lies. Its not like they can take Mom or Dad in for career day at school. No matter what they are always lying to someone about something.

Staff
Member
13 years ago

I know really wonderful parents that feel that excluding their children from the life is lying to them. Some of them talk about happy memories formed together while working together.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Kym, thier whole lives are lies. They have to lie to stay out of jail. Either way these kids lives are based on nothing but lies. Its not like they can take Mom or Dad in for career day at school. No matter what they are always lying to someone about something.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Finace:

Children raised on farms usually do work on th e farms (see all the new dairy ads for California) but there is a difference. Those kids don’t worry about getting busted or watching their parents get busted. I doubt my mother, aunts and uncles that picked cotton in the south while growing up had the same worries as the kids being raised working on their family’s illegal grows. Child labor laws work the same on farms as they do in sweat shops and factories. There are limits. I know my stepdaughter does not like having to help with trimming or at the grow. She told me that herself. Its hard work for any kid and this kid must have really felt abused to have gone to the extremes that he/she did.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Finace:

Children raised on farms usually do work on th e farms (see all the new dairy ads for California) but there is a difference. Those kids don’t worry about getting busted or watching their parents get busted. I doubt my mother, aunts and uncles that picked cotton in the south while growing up had the same worries as the kids being raised working on their family’s illegal grows. Child labor laws work the same on farms as they do in sweat shops and factories. There are limits. I know my stepdaughter does not like having to help with trimming or at the grow. She told me that herself. Its hard work for any kid and this kid must have really felt abused to have gone to the extremes that he/she did.

Toni
Guest
13 years ago

Hi Kym – hope all is well with you. Just wanted you to know I’ve stopped by. Actually, I’ve stopped by several times and not commented – don’t have anything to contribute to the discussion.

Toni
Guest
13 years ago

Hi Kym – hope all is well with you. Just wanted you to know I’ve stopped by. Actually, I’ve stopped by several times and not commented – don’t have anything to contribute to the discussion.

NorCal
Guest
NorCal
13 years ago
Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  NorCal

NorCal,

She doesn’t look like the usual suspect in the booking photos. I keep mulling over the thought that if the kid went to the officers with the complaint that his folks forced him to muck out the hay barn, the reaction would have been different.

But then again I keep thinking about Humboldt Kids’ comment that “this kid must have really felt abused to have gone to the extremes that he/she did..”

NorCal
Guest
NorCal
13 years ago

Aaaaand she’s back: Kele Hoffman arrested again for cultivation, with enhancement for prior felony conviction: http://www.mendocinosheriff.com/newbooking/pdfs/October_04_2010.pdf

Story: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_16265512

NorCal
Guest
NorCal
13 years ago

Aaaaand she’s back: Kele Hoffman arrested again for cultivation, with enhancement for prior felony conviction: http://www.mendocinosheriff.com/newbooking/pdfs/October_04_2010.pdf

Story: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_16265512

Jess21
Guest
Jess21
3 years ago

I am the child now grown up haha… the abuse wasn’t for the marijuana they were physically and mentally abusive, but when I told the police because they were threatening to kill me, they used the marijuana and the abuse because I had no marks on me and were able to remove me from the home. That is all. Kele is still doing illegal activity from last I heard, and I’m still going to therapy.