Trial Date Set In Waterford Marijuana Case

[+EdwardGlen]

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2011/01/18/news/local_news/doc4d364f25a955e081821892.txt

 

Three men facing drug charges that stem from the search of a house that followed a raid on a medical marijuana club in Waterford Township are headed to trial in April.

 

Michael Scott Danto, 24, Andrew Nater, 27, and Derek Adam Anderson, 29, are each charged with one count of delivery/manufacture of five to 45 kilos of marijuana and one count of delivery/manufacture of marijuana.

 

Dennis Hayes, an attorney representing Danto, said the men shared a rental house in Ferndale that was raided by police in August following a raid of Everybody’s Cafe in Waterford Township.

 

Hayes said the men are registered medical marijuana patients and Nater was a registered caregiver for Danto and other people. He said the number of marijuana plants found in the home — approximately 67 — was within the permissible amount allowed by statute, and the five grams of medical marijuana found in Danto’s bedroom was within the amount he is allowed to legally possess.

 

“He is a patient. He has protections under the law. They are being ignored,” Hayes said.

 

Danto, Nater and Anderson are scheduled to go to trial April 21 before Oakland Circuit Judge Leo Bowman.

 

Danto and Nater are among a group of a half-dozen people who are expected to be back in Oakland County Circuit Court this Thursday for pre-trial hearings on charges connected with the raid at Everybody’s Cafe. Other people facing charges in the same case are scheduled to appear in Waterford’s 51st District Court today.

 

Some people have been critical of law enforcement officers and prosecutors for the raids at Everybody’s Cafe, Clinical Relief in Ferndale and other places. Officials have said that the people arrested in the raids were breaking the law.