BELCHERTOWN — A South Hadley man pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Thursday to charges that he trafficked marijuana and illegally stored a firearm.
Stephen Opalenik Jr., 64, was arrested on Wednesday by town and state police units who executed a search warrant at Opalenik’s properties on Bach Lane. He posted $2,500 bail on Thursday.
Police estimate they discovered more than 100 pounds of marijuana plants and “processed marijuana” during a search of a greenhouse on the property, according to a police report filed in court. They claim to have found an “unsecured break barrel shotgun” behind a couch in the bedroom of the house where Opalenik and his wife live. Packaging material, baggies and digital scales were also located in the bedroom, police alleged.
Efforts to reach Opalenik were unsuccessful Thursday.
This is not the first time that Opalenik has been accused of growing large amounts of marijuana and keeping an unsecured gun on his property.
In 2008, police searched Opalenik’s property at 5 Bach Lane, where they alleged that they discovered a large-scale, illegal marijuana-growing operation. They were at the property after police in Hadley conducted a search warrant after they found Opalenik and his wife, Diane, at a vacant house on River Drive, where the home’s owners soon after reported china, record albums and a Beatles figurine missing.
At the time, Opalenik didn’t deny growing the marijuana police found, saying he started growing the plant as a way to pay bills after knee and shoulder injuries made it impossible for him to work steadily as a roofing contractor, according to the Gazette’s reporting at the time.
Opalenik did argue, however, that the police violated his rights when they searched his home. He said at the time that the search warrant should never have been granted because police presented no evidence he and his wife had broken into the Hadley house, or stolen anything. They were never charged with the alleged theft.
At the time, Opalenik also argued that the building where the marijuana was grown was technically on a separate, adjacent parcel of land from the one specified in the search warrant.
Ultimately, a judge agreed with Opalenik. In January 2010, the Massachusetts Appeals Court invalidated the initial Hadley Police Department search warrant for 5 Bach Lane that led to a second search warrant at the adjacent 4 Bach Lane, where officers discovered hundreds of marijuana plants and a few unsecured shotguns.
The Opaleniks sued members of the Hadley and South Hadley police departments, representing themselves in the civil case and alleging that the police departments had violated their constitutional rights. A federal judge threw out most of the case against the police, and a jury later ruled in favor of the police on the remaining charges.
In their latest search warrant this week, police listed the family’s properties at 3, 4 and 5 Bach Lane.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.