STAMFORD -- A Stanwick Place resident whose home was the alleged site of an elaborate psilocybin mushroom growing operation had his request turned down by a Stamford judge Friday to participate in a court diversionary program that would have expunged the felony drug charges from his record.
Judge Gary White said the charges against Dimitri Taranov, 44, were too serious and even though he was a first-time offender, he could not be sure that the Russian immigrant would not offend again.
On March 29, 2012, police went to Taranov's home at 15 Stanwick Place to arrest him for not paying or pleading to a ticket he received for playing his home stereo too loudly.
Police said Taranov tried to slam the door, but an officer got his foot into the door jamb, and when they followed him inside they spotted two ounces of marijuana in plain sight, Assistant State's Attorney David Applegate said.
After applying for a search warrant, police discovered two windowless rooms containing what appeared to be a high-tech operation to make something that at first they did not recognize.
According to his arrest warrant, inside one of the rooms police found plastic shelves holding 120 quart-sized glass jars of damp rye seed with loose-fitting lids covered with tin foil stamped with a date.
In the second room, shelves held 70 plastic 64-quart bins that each were connected to a sophisticated pipe air conditioning system capable of making any change of heat, coolness or humidity needed to grow the mushrooms, the police report said. The bins could hold 1,000 jars.
According to the report, the mushrooms were grown by using syringes to inject spores into the rye seed. The jars were then placed into a dark area, where eventually mushroom stems begin to grow.
Police dumped most of the equipment and rye seed, but turned over eight jars of seed to scientists at the state Department of Public Safety Toxicology Lab. There, the seed was kept in a dark area and the hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms eventually grew with the help of some plant food, Applegate said.
While objecting to Taranov's proposed participation in the accelerated rehabilitation program, which would wipe away the charges from his record, Applegate said the laboratory operation was too sophisticated and too large to allow someone to get criminal charges dismissed through a probation program.
"What they recovered there would yield a very large amount," he said. "It is not just the volume, but it is the sophistication of the operation that bothers the state."
Police Sgt. Chris Gioielli said the harvest could have netted Taranov upwards of $1 million.
Applegate said that Taranov had a pending motor vehicle infraction involving alcohol in New York State.
Taranov's attorney Lucas Watson said Taranov was deserving of another chance. He said he has never been in trouble before and was working to straighten out his life and would not offend again.
But White had heard enough.
"He has already offended at least twice and maybe three times. There in New York and he failed to appear on his infraction case here in Connecticut," White said. "I think even setting that aside and listening to the factual allegations, this is not a simple case involving a small amount of drugs and intending to sell them. It is a case where the defendant obviously put a lot of thought and time into doing what he was doing. He was running a sophisticated drug factory."
