Chesterfield To Appeal Medical Marijuana Court Ruling

[bobandtorey]

Chesterfield Township officials have decided to appeal a recent district court ruling involving the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and a possession charge that originated in the township.

By a 6-1 vote on May 5, Board members authorized the township attorney to appeal Judge William Hackel’s recent court ruling, a decision that will likely result in a jury trial to determine whether the defendant was in violation of the Medical Marijuana Act when he was found in possession of marijuana with an expired medical card.

Township Attorney Robert Seibert said the defendant, Michael Inagro, argued in court that he was immune from prosecution under section 8 of the state’s Medical Marijuana Act.

“In its most general sense, what (section 8) says is if you don’t have a card, but you are treating with a physician and there is a bona fide physician-patient relationship – the patient is receiving therapeutic benefit from the use of the marijuana to alleviate a serious and debilitating medical condition and a professional has done a full, complete assessment of the patient’s medical history – you’re allowed to possess the marijuana,” Seibert told the board. “In this particular case, the judge ruled that simply seeing the physician and getting a script for medical marijuana is, in and of itself, sufficient immunity from prosecution.”

If the case proceeds to a jury trial, the jury will have to determine whether the defendant was allowed to be in possession of marijuana through the bona fide patient-physician relationship defense.

Seibert said that in district court, “the judge said, ‘I’m not going to make that call, I’m going to let the jury decide when the jury hears the doctor testify and the patient testify, they can decide whether it’s an ongoing relationship or not.’”

“To get that far, we’re going to be sitting in a court room for two days arguing that to a jury and I’m simply saying from a dollars and cents standpoint it makes more sense to me to go to circuit court and try to get the judge to reverse it,” Seibert added.

Prior to the vote, the township attorney said that if Chesterfield did not appeal the ruling, it could negatively impact hundreds of the township’s marijuana cases.

“If we don’t appeal it, the result is going to be that we’re going to be taking a lot of these cases to jury trial, which is going to cost you substantially more,” he said.

The lone dissenting vote against the appeal came from Chesterfield Township Trustee David Joseph. He said he’s concerned about cases in which a patient receives a prescription for medical marijuana from an “online doctor” or while not having a longstanding patient-physician relationship.

“They can secure a doctor online and call that treating,” Joseph said. “The difficulty I have is that there are a number of pro-marijuana advocacy groups that can’t wait to lock onto some test case to make their argument on a more statewide or even a larger platform … What concerns me is what happens when there is a real effort made to make Chesterfield’s case a landmark decision and we’re in there battling on possession of marijuana charges. This is a loser, I think, for the township.”

Seibert responded: “The problem you’re going to have is you’re going to be seeing on your bills, on your police department prosecutions, all these jury trials, or at least a significantly larger number of jury trials on these medical marijuana cases because the judge has already ruled now and all our cases are tried before this one judge.

“He has already said, ‘In my court, when this argument is raised, I’m not going to make that call; it’s going to a jury.’ So now all of these medical marijuana cases are going to get tried. I don’t have any problem trying them – we have the staff to do that – I’m trying to save you some money.”

The township attorney said the appeal would likely involve about 10 to 15 hours of legal work. Jury trials usually take a day or two.

The application of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act is evolving in the courts almost monthly, Seibert noted. Township Trustee Hank Anderson said he sees the appeal as a way of clarifying the law.

“I look at moving forward as a way of clarifying it and getting an answer one way or the other instead of just letting it ride,” Anderson said.

Seibert expects a decision to be issued within the next couple of months.

 

http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2014/05/08/news/doc536ba4d2adee8503321088.txt?viewmode=fullstory

[GregS]

He should have waived his District Court Hearing and gone right to Circuit Court. Is that still an option?

[bobandtorey]

No the way i see it is he got what he wanted in District Court  from the Judge and if you can keep it there you have a better chance in getting it dismissed 

 

this is not legal advice 

[GregS]

No the way i see it is he got what he wanted in District Court  from the Judge and if you can keep it there you have a better chance in getting it dismissed 

 

this is not legal advice 

Point being that District Court decisions don't offer precedent, whereas Circuit Court cases do.

[bobandtorey]

 the judge ruled that simply seeing the physician and getting a script for medical marijuana is, in and of itself, sufficient immunity from prosecution.”

 

i think this is why the township doesn't like it if Leo can't arrest someone for cannabis the city mane worried about keeping their Job's 

imo

[GregS]

Would not waiving the District Court trial, putting it directly in Circuit Court, have the effect of saving the defendant those Discrict Court costs in this case where it is almost certaily assured that the losing party would appeal to the Circuit Court,, whatever the outcome, unless the losing party were to decide to drop it?

[Highlander]

Point being that District Court decisions don't offer precedent, whereas Circuit Court cases do.

Circuit court doesn't provide precedent either. That is court of appeals and Supreme Court

[t-pain]

so many board of directors / city council want to waste money.

 

who are these people and why does democracy breed these people into power?

Edited May 8, 2014 by t-pain

[bobandtorey]

Would not waiving the District Court trial, putting it directly in Circuit Court, have the effect of saving the defendant those Discrict Court costs in this case where it is almost certaily assured that the losing party would appeal to the Circuit Court,, whatever the outcome, unless the losing party were to decide to drop it?

Bingo

why would the court want to save a cg/pt $$  

[bobandtorey]

This is a very disgusting maneuver on the part of the City Attorney, in my opinion: the denial of justice for a financial motive.

imo things have not changed as far as financial motive = War on Drugs

[GregS]

Circuit court doesn't provide precedent either. That is court of appeals and Supreme Court

I might be mistaken, but I've understood that Circuit Court findings are much more binding than those of the District Courts. I am better trained in tort law than in criminal law. That may be the reason if I misunderstand.

[GregS]

so many board of directors / city council want to waste money.

 

who are these people and why does democracy breed these people into power?

For lack of a better word, "freedom."

[Wild Bill]

"If we don’t appeal it, the result is going to be that we’re going to be taking a lot of these cases to jury trial, which is going to cost you substantially more,”

Plus, they'll probably lose.

[bobandtorey]

its true they would probably lose  if you had a great Lawyer = $$$ most know today jury trial are starting to happen more and more in the courts 

 

Gee it only took almost five years for them to start happening 

[bobandtorey]

Would not waiving the District Court trial, putting it directly in Circuit Court, have the effect of saving the defendant those Discrict Court costs in this case where it is almost certaily assured that the losing party would appeal to the Circuit Court,, whatever the outcome, unless the losing party were to decide to drop it?

One day we will see things changing more and card holders  will be safer and cg can start growing again because they are also safer to do so then the Bill's may pass to stop it again