It's confusing to point out several instances where whitespace is not to a standard rather than stating that standard.  

It seems the rule is:

"""<docstring>\n\n(:param <param_name>:\w<param_name>\n)*(:return:\w<return_doc>\n)+"""

I was using tabs instead of single-space.  I'm now conforming to the above pattern as it seems to be the pattern throughout the project.  Please advise if this is not the case.