Palmdale Contractor Sentenced in Pot-Growing Scheme : Narcotics: Richard Yerger gets more than 12 years in prison, a term the judge calls harsh, for financing the Antelope Valley farm.

A 62-year-old Palmdale contractor was sentenced Monday to 12 years and seven months in prison for financing a sophisticated underground marijuana farm, a term the judge in the case said was too harsh.

Richard E. Yerger was also fined $50,000 by U. S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew for his role in constructing and paying for the operation of an Antelope Valley house with nearly 4,000 marijuana plants growing under sunlamps in the basement.

Lew said he wanted to give a lesser sentence to Yerger because he had no prior criminal record, but that federal sentencing guidelines left him no choice.

“This is one of the kinds of cases where judges personally should have discretion,” Lew said.

Federal sentencing rules were stiffened in recent years to ensure that major drug dealers receive at least 10 years in prison, prosecutors said. Mandatory sentences can go as high as life in prison if a large amount of drugs is involved.

Prior to imposition of the sentence, Yerger, speaking in a halting voice, told the judge that he had led a “decent and hard-working life” and that “there’s a lot more to me than just a jury’s verdict.”

Assistant U. S. Atty. Jackie Chooljian agreed that Yerger had a “good character background; I won’t dispute that.”

“But he threw all that away,” Chooljian said. “He got involved, perhaps because of greed, in marijuana cultivation.”

She also noted that trial testimony indicated that Yerger paid for construction of the house in the tiny community of Llano and was to receive 50% of the profits from the drug sales.

At Yerger’s trial, drug enforcement officials said plants growing in the house’s basement could have yielded $35 million worth of marijuana annually, but the raid took place before the first harvest.

Jurors deliberated for three hours before convicting Yerger, who maintains that he was unaware that marijuana was growing at the property and plans to appeal his conviction, said his attorney, Richard M. Steingard.

Authorities said Yerger’s farm apparently copied three similar farms--one in Lancaster and two in Bullhead City, Ariz.--organized by Lancaster plumbing contractor Frank Gegax. The farms were raided by police in October and November, 1990.

The plants were cultivated in soilless garden bins in a basement equipped with sunlamps and an automatic watering system, police said.

Yerger was the last to be sentenced of 15 men arrested in connection with the four farms.

Gegax reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Arizona and was sentenced in September to 12 years in prison.

Others received lesser sentences because they cooperated with authorities or had a lesser involvement in the scheme, Chooljian said.

Under federal prison practices, each will serve about 85% of his sentence, she said.