A federal prosecutor said he dropped a marijuana manufacturing charge against a Rome Township woman because he is convinced she had little involvement in growing more than 8,000 marijuana plants seized in a 2011 police raid.
A trial that was to have begun June 18 for Linda Diane Schmieding, 62, in federal district court was canceled. A motion by an assistant United States attorney to dismiss a marijuana manufacturing charge was approved that day by a judge.
The dismissal was not part of a plea bargain with her husband, Edwin Keith Schmieding, 62, said Barrington Wilkins, who has handled the cases since 2011. Edwin Schmieding pleaded guilty in March to a marijuana manufacturing charge and is to be sentenced Tuesday, June 25.
