[420 Girl]

James A. Shope, who admitted a charge of first-degree criminal possession of marijuana last year after police said he had 15 pounds of marijuana when pulled over for a traffic stop, was sentenced Monday in Chemung County Court to four months of alternate weekends in the Chemung County Jail, a $5,000 fine and five years of probation.

But the Chemung County District Attorney's Office expressed outrage at the light sentence, given the amount of drugs involved.

Chemung County Judge Peter C. Buckley said he spared Shope a state prison sentence because of his community service work and because he had no history of drug convictions. He also ordered Shope to continue his community service work, including finish painting at the John W. Jones Museum in Elmira.

Shope, of Elmira, is the owner of a local painting and drywall company.

Assistant District Attorney John Thweatt, who prosecuted the case and pushed for prison time, doesn't understand the judge's reasoning. Shope could have received up to 5 1/2 years for his conviction.

"Our reasoning was a huge amount of drugs that he facilitated being brought into the community through a Mexican connection in Texas. The drugs were 'FedExed' up, 15 pounds of pot to his shop," Thweatt said. "And by his own admission, his goal was to help distribute that 15 pounds of marijuana. We were a little outraged that with that amount of drugs, and as active as he was in that process to try to distribute those drugs, that he essentially just got a slap on the wrist.

"We respect the judge's decision but obviously we disagree with it," he said. "That's a huge amount of pot. And to just walk away with probation, it makes no sense. It sends no message to the community, other than nothing much is going to happen to you."

Buckley said Shope had done a good job with his work at the museum, at Catholic Charities' Samaritan Center and at the homes of people who couldn't afford to paint their houses themselves. He is to submit reports on his community service work every six months to the court.

"I do enjoy the work," Shope said in court.

Shope was pulled over on March 18 on West Church Street in Elmira when police found the marijuana.

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