Deputy Charged With Growing Pot in Backyard

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was charged Tuesday with growing marijuana after 12 pounds of the plants were confiscated from the backyard of her Lakewood home, authorities said.

Deputy Sandra Lee Kotch, 34, and her roommate, Linda Feenstra, 43, were arrested Monday night and released after posting $1,000 bail, Deputy Dan Cox said.

Sheriff’s narcotics deputies were notified by an anonymous tipster that Kotch and Feenstra had been growing marijuana in the 6600 block of Bigelow Street, Cox said.

Kotch, a 12-year veteran assigned to Compton Municipal Court as a process server, has been suspended with pay pending a Sheriff’s Department investigation, Cox said.

Kotch was a patrol officer at the department’s Lakewood station for five years and worked at Sybil Brand Institute for Women before she was assigned to the court services division, Cox said.

Arraignment for Kotch, who faces up to three years in prison on one count of cultivation of marijuana, has been scheduled Sept. 14, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Weiss said. He did not know when Feenstra, who faces the same charge, will be arraigned.