11/4/11 Wooster jeweler gets five years in hallucinogenic mushroom case

  • By Nick Sabo
  • November 4, 2011
  • 395
                        
SUMMARY: Ordered to forfeit guns, silver, cash A Wooster jeweler who grew and sold hallucinogenic mushrooms was sentenced Wednesday Nov. 2 to prison time in Wayne County Common Pleas Court. Bert D. Underwood, 57, 692 Greenwood Boulevard, was sentenced by Common Pleas Judge Corey Spitler to five years in prison on one count of illegal manufacture or illegal cultivation of drugs and two counts of trafficking. Spitler further ordered Underwood to forfeit 35 firearms and ammo, 42 silver coins and bars, and cash totaling $2,303. Underwood was able to prove a condo and Harley Davidson motorcycle sought by the state were in the name of his girlfriend and were therefor not subject to forfeiture. The firearms, cash and silver will be forfeited to Medway Drug Enforcement Agency. The charges against Underwood stem from a six-month Medway investigation that resulted in the arrest of six individuals, including Underwood, who were growing and selling psilocybin mushrooms. During the investigation, Medway agents purchased psilocybin mushrooms from Underwood at his jewelry store on Cleveland Avenue. According to Medway reports, Underwood sold the dried mushrooms by the ounce for between $125 - $150. The investigation further found that codefendant Brian K. Brown, 44, 7040 Cleveland Road, Wooster, taught Underwood and at least two other people how to grow the mushrooms from spores. The spores were incubated in jars then transferred to trays to finish growing. Agents completed the investigation June 6 with a round of arrests and found psilocybin, dried and ready for sale, or in the process of growing, with a combined street value of $150,000. Brown was sentenced by Spitler to five years in prison on five counts of illegal manufacture or cultivation of drugs and two counts of trafficking in controlled substances. Also charged in the Medway investigation were Ilene Bennett, 68, and Harry Bennett, 67, both of 7040 Cleveland Road, Wooster, Shannon M. Yeagley, 30, 3669 E. Sterling Road, Creston, and Justin R. Graham, 27, 140 N. Main St., Creston. Ilene and Harry Bennet are scheduled for change of plea hearings Nov. 10. Yeagley’s case is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Nov. 16 and Graham is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Nov. 9.


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