Ex-CIA employees complain about a pot raid that occurred in their Kansas home, after it was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep. They claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.

Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff’s deputies searched their home in the upscale community of Leawood in Johnson County last April, as part of Operation Constant Gardener. It was a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that resulted into a heap of marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several locations.

April 20 has long been used by marijuana users as a day to celebrate the illegal drug and more recently by law enforcement for raids and crackdowns. The Hartes’ attorney, Cheryl Pilate, said that she suspects the couple’s 1,825 square-foot split level was targeted because they had purchased hydrophonic equipment to grow a small number of tomatoes and squash plants in their basement.

The store where they purchased the equipment seems to have been assumed by authorities as a go-to place for the drug's users. "With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors," according to the couple's lawsuit.

The couple filed the lawsuit this week under the Kansas Open Records Act after Johnson County and Leawood denied their initial records requests. Leawood officials say it had no relevant records on the matter. The Hartes say the public has the right and interest to know whether the sheriff department’s participation in the raids was "based on a well-founded belief of marijuana use and cultivation at the targeted addresses, or whether the raids primarily served a publicity purpose."

"If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn't led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?" said Adlynn Harte in an interview.

According to the suit filed in Johnson County District Court, the couple has two children – a 7-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. The kids were “shocked and frightened” when the deputies, armed with assault rifles and wearing bulletproof vests pounded on the door of their home around 7:30 a.m. last April 20.

When the sweep occurred, according to the court filings, the Hartes were informed that they had been under surveillance for months. However, the couple “know of no basis for conducting such surveillance nor do they believe such surveillance would have produced any facts supporting the issuance of a search warrant."