Jury Convicts 70-Year-Old Lake Orion Woman In Marijuana Case

[+ProPlayer420]

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2011/06/07/news/doc4dee53ce04a52682943601.txt?viewmode=default

I thought defendants were allowed to present the best defense they can. How can this be if a Medical Marijuana Card holder can't use this as a defense??

 

An assistant prosecutor told jurors this morning to follow the law and not use sympathy when weighing the fate of a 70-year-old woman facing a drug charge.

 

Should this 70-year-old woman be sent to prison? What should be done with the medical marijuana law as well as the marijuana and drug laws in general? Comment below.

 

In the end, the jury heeded that advice and decided to convict Barbara Agro as charged. She faces sentencing July 13 on one count of delivery/manufacture of marijuana, a 4-year felony.

 

The former Lake Orion police dispatcher worked as a receptionist at a medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale called Clinical Relief. When the facility was raided on Aug. 25, 2010, Agro told deputies that she had marijuana plants growing at her house. Deputies found 19 marijuana plants and other items during a search of her Lake Orion home.

 

“You must hold the defendant accountable for her actions,” said Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand during her closing argument.

 

Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota said Agro used the substance for medical reasons.

 

“In this case here, we have a person who was growing medicine for herself,” Sabbota said.

 

Sabbota referenced old laws, such as those surrounding prohibition and a law that once made it a crime to harbor a runaway slave. In his opening statement yesterday, he told jurors that laws sometimes need to be changed.

 

Hand pointed out that Sabbota did not contest any elements of the charged crime.

 

Hand said marijuana, in the state of Michigan, is still illegal. She said Agro is not charged with using marijuana, but with growing it.

 

“This is not a medical marijuana case,” she said.

 

Hand referenced Agro’s age and told jurors that all different types of people break the law.

 

“The law is that sympathy and prejudice have no place in the courtroom,” she said.

 

Agro is a registered medical marijuana patient and caregiver. Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts previously granted a motion from prosecutors seeking to preclude Agro from referencing the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act during the trial.

[+Silverblue]

TOTALLY BOGUS!!! goddddddaaammmmmmittttttt!!!! GRRRRRR!!!! First they kill her husband, now they railroad her! WHERE THE HELL IS REAL JUSTICE??? GRRRRRRRR!!!!!

 

"Agro is a registered medical marijuana patient and caregiver. Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts previously granted a motion from prosecutors seeking to preclude Agro from referencing the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act during the trial."

 

I WOULD'VE SAID MM ANYWAY!!!! let the truth be known!!!!!! ooooo wHEN THOSE JURORS FIND OUT WHAT THEY WERE DECEIVED INTO DOING, ruining a woman's life who did nothing wrong!!! GRRRRR!!! I HOPE THAT JUDGE AND PROSECUTOR FRY IN HELL AND PRECLUDE THEM FROM PRACTICING LAW EVER AGAIN!!!!!!! LAWSUIT TIME!!!!!! HOLY EFFING CHIT! (EDITED OUT "ORGANIZE MASS RALLY") i WOULDNL'T WANNA JEPORDIZE HER SAFETY.

 

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE, THIS KIND OF CHIT HAS TO STOP!!! NNOW!!!!! THIS IS TOTALLY INSANE!!!!!oooooooo I AM SOOOOOOOOO MAAADDDDDD!!!!! They KNOW a jury wouldn't convict a MEDICAL USER!!!! SOMEONE PLEASE GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THIS AND SPREAD IT ALL OVER THE WORLD THIS IS OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE!!! HEY VOTERS THIS IS YOUR HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!!!! ABUSE BY THE SYSTEM OF CORRUPTION!!!!!! THIS IS SO WRONG, WRONG WRONG. PUT THIS JUDGE AND PROSECUTOR IN THE "FOES" CATEGORY!!!!!!!!! GRRR! Oh that dear lady, I wish I could comfort her and I hope she can appeal, I'm so mad, I can barely imagine how SHE feels. My god what has this world come to!!!!! TYRANNY!!!!!!!

:growl:

Sb

[cristinew]

Where was her attorney? just collecting money?

[CedarSpringsCG]

Wow SB... Silver Red?

 

I would have to think that her attorney's expected this and are setting up the appeal. Oakland is going to convict no matter what, any way they can. I wouldn't put it past them to be doing Jury tampering... Oh wait, they are by not allowing them to hear the facts.

 

I don't understand how a law that specifically says that no one shall be denied the ability to use this law as a defense, can be barred from mentioning it in a court.

[+budhabit]

Mrs. Agro, is a victim of the Oakland County gestapo. I urge every decent person to boycott all merchantsin Oakland County. We need to organize a response. It is important that merchants in Oakland county bare the brunt of the response. We have got to hit them where it hurts. We need to organize out of county shopping trips for patients/caregivers and their families. It we organize this thing properly, none of us will endure hardship. We need to organize shopping days. We need to put together teams to drive patients to other counties to buy drugs, food and all other goods. It's time for the next step up. I don't want to do a protest right now, because Mrs. Agro may end up paying for it. Let's wait and see what the judge does. We can't let her get sacrificed for the cause. We have to try and save her.

 

I am disgusted by the continued abuse of patients. I am reminded of Selma, Birmingham and Kent State. The innocents are being slaughtered by the police state. We must organize. Thanks, Bb

 

I agree with you100% BB and there is no better word to describe the Oakland County Prosecutors and Sheriffs dept then Gestapo. So we need to step back and think about our battle plans in how to combat Nazis

[+EdwardGlen]

Truly a slap in the face of every American service member who has made the ultimate sacrifice in defending the constitution.

 

 

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the hard may be; for without victory there is no survival.

- Winston Churchill

[cristinew]

Ask the voters why beth hand has so many unsolved muders and missing persons in her county, she is not doing her job,The people need to know why she has so many unsolverd murders. and why she spends so much of the taxpayers money on putting 70 year old women in jail

[+Silverblue]

yup I'm red. MAD AS HELL red. There's no way to get a fair trial in OC. HOW DARE THEY DO THAT TO HER!!! I like the boycott idea, very appropriate for this situation, better than a protest right now! This news has to go viral!

 

Sb

[Kingdiamond]

It is time to unleash a boycott on all Oakland county businesses maybe they will listen to their business owners when all their company's get damaged by people refusing to spend money in Oakland county .

 

I havent spent one penny out of my pocket north of 8 mile for a year now.

[semicaregiver]

This is the time to make lemonade out of a lemon!

 

The Agro's story is undoubtedly one of the best if not the best pr opportunities for our movement. The movement as a group should hire a pr firm and put together a blitz of all the news media with this story. Interviews on the tv news, radio, newspapers, etc.

 

"Straight, 70 year old couple next door, one is the beloved high school coach, the other works at the police department. They followed the law, got their cards. Next thing they are raided, husband dies from raid, and wife railroaded. All for being sick and following the law"

[+budhabit]

Norml is looking at a boycott also. We need a support system on the ground to help our patients boycott these animals. Thanks, bb

 

I wish we could afford Billboards

[CedarSpringsCG]

I really dislike the boycott idea. You are basically hurting innocent business people by doing it. They have nothing to do with law enforcement, and they are innocent casualties of the war.

 

Unfortunately I do think it would be very effective if you can keep it going long enough. However just make sure you realize that you are probably destroying a few peoples lives to do it.

 

[Geoffrey Laster]

Let get this in perspective. We have this lady who had 19 plants in here home, was she a caregiver of another person or was the 19 plant hers. if so the she broke the law and should be charged. We are allowed 12 plants, and that is it. I can grow my own medicine with 12 plants and that all.

[Kingdiamond]

Let get this in perspective. We have this lady who had 19 plants in here home, was she a caregiver of another person or was the 19 plant hers. if so the she broke the law and should be charged. We are allowed 12 plants, and that is it. I can grow my own medicine with 12 plants and that all.

Do you clone or just start with fresh seeds every grow?

 

Because to ensure that you keep a uninterrupted supply of medicine you must take clones off of every plant you place in flower any excess amount of clones are not suppose to count towards your 12 plants while oakland county leos im sure counted every thing in the room cuttings included .

 

I just counted all my unrooted cuttings and mature plants and i exceed the limit if they count everything as a plant which by the wording of the law they should not and I'm following the law that says unrooted clones are not part of my plant count .

[Kingdiamond]

I wish we could afford Billboards

How much does a billboard cost does it cost more than our freedom ?

 

Ill gladly donate $100 if indeed someone wants to put up a boycott oakland county billboard.

[Kingdiamond]

I really dislike the boycott idea. You are basically hurting innocent business people by doing it. They have nothing to do with law enforcement, and they are innocent casualties of the war.

 

Unfortunately I do think it would be very effective if you can keep it going long enough. However just make sure you realize that you are probably destroying a few peoples lives to do it.

 

We just had a legal patient convicted by a Oakland county jury some of those jurors were more than likely business owners in oakland county .

 

 

Sometimes you need to step on toes to get justice maybe if some of these suffering business owners get in the mayors and city councils face over this it might open up a line of communication for us to get this all out assault on the sick to cease in their county

[Kingdiamond]

It really kills me to see law enforcement get away with nullifying a law by using dirty tricks (fake cards) yet when we are urged to retaliate in a civil manner by refusing to spend money in a Draconian ruled county people feel sorry for those willing to convict someone within the scope of the law.

 

BOYCOTT OAKLAND COUNTY BUSINESSES NOW!

[+Silverblue]

I hope she has someone she can talk to who can try to comfort her. My god, the injustice! This story has to be told far and wide. What about the jurors who were lied to? What about TRUTH in trials? Suppression of ALL the FACTS- this is a serious issue I wish someone could do something about so no more innocent people have to suffer. Those who withhold evidence are obstructing justice; they cannot be allowed to continue. HOW CAN THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT??? A woman and her family are traumatized for life.

 

Justice shall have its day, and LIVE on forevermore.

 

Sb

[Frank R]

I feel no safer for having a 70 year old pensioner off the streets.

What Oakland County is doing is a travesty of justice, and a waste of precious, tax payer dollars.

Bread and Circuses for the Three Stooges constituents, most of whom are 70 year old pensioners themselves...

[+budhabit]

I really dislike the boycott idea. You are basically hurting innocent business people by doing it. They have nothing to do with law enforcement, and they are innocent casualties of the war.

 

Unfortunately I do think it would be very effective if you can keep it going long enough. However just make sure you realize that you are probably destroying a few peoples lives to do it.

 

 

And my children were also innocent when they were thrown to the ground with guns pointed at there heads and property stolen from me when they raided me or maybe we should start raiding there homes and stealing there property I know this sounds extream but after you have had to endured a raid like I did you no longer feel like an American and you loose all respect for the country you once loved to the point it makes you want to fight for your freedom at all costs

[Kingdiamond]

What law says unrooted clones aren't plants?

A unrooted cutting by definition is not a plant and thus is unusable .

 

Otherwise Leos could cut down one plant and debranch it and transplant each branch into 20 different pots right?

 

 

I stagger my grows i clone 3-7 days before I'm ready to harvest by the time they root i have a correct count i understand its a unique way to read the law but to ensure a non stop supply of medicine its necessary.

[jayt]

And my children were also innocent when they were thrown to the ground with guns pointed at there heads and property stolen from me when they raided me or maybe we should start raiding there homes and stealing there property I know this sounds extream but after you have had to endured a raid like I did you no longer feel like an American and you loose all respect for the country you once loved to the point it makes you want to fight for your freedom at all costs

So you lower yourself to their level? You give them the proof they want to convince the public that you are a danger?

 

I have lived in OC all of my life. I find the actions of the PA, the sheriff, and the commissioner to be rather repulsive. OC overwhelmingly approved this law. I'm sure many business owners, police officers and their families also voted for this law. A boycott won't have the impact you want. When people called for boycotting gas stations did it bring down the cost? Nope. A boycott punishes the wrong people.

 

The best place to fix the OC problem is the voter booth. All three of our problems are elected officials. Removing them is our best hope.

[semicaregiver]

I am very curious how a boycott would work.

 

There are 1.2 million people in OC and 75-80K patients statewide. I don't know the # of patients in OC, but OC represents 12% of the state population so one might guess around 10,000 patients. Assuming 100% participation this is a boycott by less than 1% of the population of the county.

 

While I understand the frustration with the County leadership I would wonder what sort of message a failed boycott might send.

[+Silverblue]

There is a genuine concern for innocent people getting punished by a boycott. I agree the best way is to vote the 3 idiots out. I thought it was the prosecutor, not the commissioner that we are angry at. In fact, I remember awhile ago Michael said there was a commissioner who's on our side, in one of those unfriendly areas. Anyway, a boycott, I know could work but I wonder if there are any other ways to get our message across without hurting innocent people. We must have other tools we can use. Our society is based on the punishment/reward system, sometimes it's effective, other times it's not. The problem is, in order to punish a select few, many others get hurt in the process. One idea I have is when anyone tells someone there in OC about what's going on, ask them if they'd vote for someone else. Talk to anyone from anywhere, they may know someone in OC who's unaware of this corruption. Find a better candidate who you hope will carry out the will of The People. Hopefully they will keep their word if they say they're on our side. Keep the facts flowing, talk to people, somehow those jurors need to know they were deceived into making a conviction. Jurors are being misled. Something must be done about that. Education is the key.

 

So after reading this thread and thinking about a boycott, I'm concerned. Will it really affect the people who need to be hurt? What other means do we have besides that, or protesting? My best idea is to spread the word whenever and wherever possible.

 

Sb

[+wolfgang]

if they were legal patients which I believe they were,none of us are safe then,I hope they appeal this is an out rage,I'm disgusted with the jury!!!