This is a story to share with those in this forum who grow potted Japanese maples.

Not to make this too political, but I think there are elements to the below story that both sides of political aisle will find problematic.

Ryan Frederick is an amateur gardener who grows tomatoes and Japanese maple trees.

For people not very familiar with Japanese maples, their leaves can look a little like the leaves on a marijuana plant, so it is understandable it could have resulted in mistaken confusion from a person not very familiar with plants.

An informant told police there was pot growing at the residence and a warrant was issued.

On the night of January 17, 2008, Frederick awoke to his dogs barking at an individual breaking into the front door of his Chesapeake, Virginia house. Unbeknownst to Frederick, the intruder was actually a plainclothes police officer.

Frederick, who had been burglarized earlier in the week, mistook the police for thieves and sought to defend his home by firing on the unexpected intruders. Police officer Jarrod Shivers was killed.

Law-enforcement does not take kindly to people defending their homes during mistaken drug raids. Ryan Frederick has been charged with first-degree murder on the theory that he knew the intruders were police and fired on them anyway.

Frederick had no criminal record and no marijuana plants. The informant was just wrong. Although a few joints were found in the home, it just doesn't make much sense to contend that Frederick would provoke a shoot-out with police over a misdemeanor. Nonetheless, he was charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and prosecutors were even considering upgrading the charge to capital murder.

He was held in jail for more than 2 weeks before a judge was willing to grant him temporary release on bail. Then he could only hope that a jury would understand the horrible situation he'd been placed in. He had to wait a little more than a year until the trial was held (which is a very normal waiting time).

In the end, Frederick was convicted of voluntary manslaughter (as well as a misdemeanor of simple marijuana possession), receiving a 10-year prison sentence, though he was released 7 years later.

(The marijuana possession charge carried only a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for a first offense. The state later legalized marijuana in 2021)

It seems pretty clear that the only reason this raid ever happened is that some idiot mistook Japanese Maple trees for marijuana. That's all it took. If you call in a suspected marijuana grow, you are assumed to be a botanist capable of accurately identifying plants. Police will even risk their lives to investigate your idiotic claims.

Ryan Frederick is lucky to even be alive, which begs the question of how many dead innocent people would have been unfairly charged with attempted cop-murder if they'd been fortunate enough to even survive the raid.

A Cop is Dead Because An Informant Mistook Japanese Maple Trees For Marijuana

another related story: Hibiscus plants mistaken for marijuana, police raid home (posted Aug 20, 2025 in 'Hibiscuses' section)