Teacher Arrested on Marijuana Cultivation Charges
A teacher with the Las Virgenes Unified School District was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of growing more than $1 million worth of marijuana on a farm in Fresno County, school district officials said.
Teacher Patrick Yves Kale, 43, and his wife Lisa Gay Kale, 29, were arrested in their Thousand Oaks home on Maple Road on suspicion of cultivating marijuana for sale, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said.
The arrests came after Fresno County sheriff’s deputies discovered an illegal marijuana farm outside of Pinehurst, a tiny mountain community in Fresno County. Authorities said they found about 550 marijuana plants valued at $1.5 million growing on the farm.
An investigation linked the Kaleses to the illegal farm, said Sgt. Mike Cunningham of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department. On Wednesday, armed with a search warrant, Fresno and Ventura deputies went to the Kale residence where they said they found another 90 marijuana seedlings.
In a prepared statement on the arrests, Albert D. Marley, superintendent of the Las Virgenes school district, said authorities assured him that there was no indication that any students or other district staff members are involved.
Marley said that Kale will be removed from the classroom until “the matter is settled.”
School district officials and officials of the Las Virgenes Educators’ Assn. declined to name the school where Kale taught.
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