Andrea Sanderlin pot case: Scarsdale mom remains behind bars

Andrea Sanderlin, the Scarsdale woman charged with growing marijuana plants worth more than $3 million in a warehouse, remains behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, jail officials said Monday.

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said no court date or bail hearing had been scheduled for the 45-year-old mother of three who was arrested May 20.

The U.S. attorney's office has 30 days from the time of her arrest to present its case to a grand jury in Brooklyn, Nardoza said.

Sanderlin's lawyer, Joel Winograd, has been seeking unsuccessfully to arrange bail. He did not respond to calls for comment Monday.

Drug Enforcement Agents, working on a tip from an unnamed informant, raided a warehouse in Maspeth, Queens, where they found almost 3,000 marijuana plants nourished by a hydroponic irrigation systems and grow lights.

Sanderlin, whose case has been likened to the Showtime television show "Weeds," lived in a mansion on a tree-lined Scarsdale street and went riding at a Bronxville stable about three times a week with one of her daughters, stable owner Scott Tarter said.

In "Weeds," 48-year-old actress Mary-Louise Parker plays Nancy Botwin, a suburban California mom who starts to sell marijuana to rescue her family from a financial crisis.

The complaint against Sanderlin estimated the street value of marijuana recovered at the warehouse at more than $3 million. Marijuana prices vary depending on source and potency, but a DEA spokeswoman Monday said that marijuana cultivated with hydroponics fetches $1,800 to $8,000 per pound.