PROBATION OFFICER ARRESTED FOR GROWING MARIJUANA

MADISON -- A U.S. probation officer based in Eau Claire was arrested
this week and accused of growing marijuana at his rural Mondovi home.

Timothy Easker, 40, was arrested at the Federal Courthouse in Eau
Claire after the West-Central Drug Task Force searched his town of
Rock Creek home and recovered 26 small marijuana plants growing
indoors in plastic pots, said Dunn County Assistant District Attorney
Andrew Maki.

Agents also seized plant food, a water jug, smoking pipes, seeds and
a postal scale, Maki said.

Easker spent Tuesday night in the Dunn County Jail before being
released Wednesday on a $1,000 signature bond, Maki said.

Easker has not been formally charged, Maki said, but he is expected
to be charged with manufacturing marijuana, a felony punishable by up
to 7 1/2 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

His initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, June 18,
before Judge Rod Smeltzer.

In a prepared statement released Thursday, U.S. District Judge
Barbara Crabb said she was reporting Easker's arrest "with
considerable sadness."

Easker, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Pre-Trial and Probation
Services, was suspended from service. His probation caseload was
divided among other officers pending the outcome of his case, said
Ken Hanson, chief probation officer in Madison.

Probation officers supervise activities of former federal inmates to
assist with their social adjustment to the community and to protect
the public, according to a mission statement at the U.S. Probation
office in Madison.

Hanson declined to comment on Easker's case except to say, "We're
confident in the system, and the system will render justice."