Elderly Couple Caught in Pot Bust; Needed Income to Make the Mortgage

ALAMEDA — Paul Richard Martinetti stood on the front patio of his bungalow-style house with a glass of water in one hand, a cigarette in another. He took long drags while looking out on Garfield Avenue, a quiet street with well-maintained lawns where a mailman makes his rounds.

Dressed in a worn gray sweater, his white hair covered by a black baseball cap, the 73-year-old Alameda man does not have much to say about his arrest Oct. 4 after police found 233 marijuana plants in his home.

“I’ve been told that the less I talk about it, the better I’m off,” said Martinetti, who is originally from New York.

Martinetti and Suzanne Roberts, 68, his partner of more than 15 years, are facing felony charges for allegedly cultivating marijuana plants at the back of their home on Garfield. They are also charged with possession of marijuana for sale.

The couple told police that they turned to growing marijuana because of financial troubles and to save their home from foreclosure. Now the elderly couple with no criminal history are each facing a maximum of three years and eight months in prison if found guilty.

With the charges, the plan to keep their home has fallen apart, and the couple must move out of the house they have lived in seven years in the next few months.

Their next court appearance is Nov. 27. When asked how he was doing recently, Martinetti said, “In two words? F—– up.”

According to official reports, the police found the couple’s marijuana crop Aug. 30, when they received a tip from an anonymous neighbor who, reported that marijuana was being cultivated at the home.

Police officers entered Roberts and Martinetti’s property through an open driveway gate on the side of the house and followed two black and gold signs with arrows that read “office” to a building containing the marijuana plants.

Officers reported seeing and smelling the marijuana even before entering the detached building, described as the garage. The structure was divided into four separate rooms, all used for cultivating marijuana plants at different stages of growth, the police report said.

Martinetti said he started cultivating marijuana in March but had built the backyard garage and set up the lighting last fall, according to the statements the couple gave to police. He decided to grow the plants because Roberts, who owned the house on Garfield Avenue, was having a difficulty paying her mortgage, according to his statements.

Both are retired, according to police reports. Omar Figueroa, attorney for Roberts, said his client was a former small business management consultant. Martinetti said that he is a former auto mechanic and cabinetmaker. He has been assigned a public defender.

Figueroa, an attorney who specializes in defending people charged on cannabis cases, said the couple’s circumstance illustrates how the criminalization of marijuana, except for medicinal purposes, can have dire results.

“It takes otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens and turns them into criminals, brings fear of being put into a steel cage, and it’s just not a rational way to deal with it,” Figueroa said.

Martinetti told police in a statement that he bought books that showed him how to grow marijuana. He sold one crop, according to his statement.

In total, approximately three pounds of packaged marijuana was found in the couple’s home, along with a .22 caliber handgun and $9,774 in cash, police reports stated.

Police reports described the marijuana grow as sophisticated, with lights strategically placed above the plants at various stages of development. The lights were also placed on rails and moved in a continuous motion to simulate moving sunlight.

The police did not arrest the couple when the marijuana was discovered because of their age, and they did not pose a flight risk, said to Lt. Art Fuentes, spokesperson for the Alameda Police Department.

Although Figueroa said he could not comment on the specifics of the case, he said that his client has a clean record and is good and outstanding citizen. He also said his client had bought the house in Alameda in order to take care of her aging mother until she died from colon cancer at age 92. Because of Roberts does not have a criminal history, Figueroa said it is unlikely that she will actually go to prison.

Theresa Elander, who lives next door to Martinetti and Roberts, described them as fabulous neighbors. Elander declined to talk about the couple’s legal troubles but would only speak on their character.

“They look out for me and are very helpful,” she said.