Local News in Brief : Deputy Allowed to Resign
A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was fired after being charged with growing marijuana in the back yard of her Lakewood home, then appealed her dismissal, will be allowed to resign from the department, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
The former deputy, Sandra Lee Kotch, 34, withdrew the appeal of her April dismissal, which was to have been heard by the county Civil Service Commission, and resigned for “personal” reasons, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Capt. Dick Walls said.
Kotch and a roommate, Linda Feenstra, 44, were arrested last August after sheriff’s narcotics deputies received an anonymous tip that they were growing marijuana behind the home.
Authorities confiscated nine plants weighing about 12 pounds from the back yard and several partially smoked marijuana cigarettes from the home.
Kotch and Feenstra were charged with one felony count of cultivation of marijuana. In March, both were allowed to enter a drug diversion program rather than stand trial on the charge, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Weiss said.
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