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Action Requested In Port Huron Medical Marijuana Case


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On Wednesday in Port Huron the ongoing case of the Blue Water Compassion Centers gets dragged through the courts again. The cases originated in 2011 when prosecutors from Tuscola executed warrants on three Blue Water businesses, including one in Sanilac and one in St. Clair County. The case has been up and down the legal system and was dismissed already twice by judges. Prosecutors, refusing to let the issue drop, have challenged the rulings every time at great expense and embarrassment.

The court action will be a defense response to plea bargain offers made by Prosecutors. Defendants, including Jim and Debra Amsdill, are requesting attendance from anyone who opposes the waste of resources, the persecution of patients and the perversion of process this case represents. Activists will gather on the sidewalk outside the courthouse at 201 McMorran Blvd., Port Huron, on Wednesday, September 30 at 12:00. The court proceeding begins at 1:30; signs are welcome on the sidewalk but are not allowed in the courthouse building itself.

TCC reported on the Blue Water case in August of 2015. Jim, Debra and attorney Paul Tylenda had these things to say:

“This is past criminal punishment and is now cruel and unusual punishment by the government,” Jim Amsdill flatly stated. “They do it to break you down.”

“It’s constantly on your mind. It’s nerve wracking.”

Tylenda said, “Prosecutors are never going to say, hey, this case stinks. They don’t just drop cases. They let the process work itself out… It is a waste.”

“There seems to be a loss of interest” on the part of prosecutors to drive these cases forward, Tylenda said. “When this all began there was a feeling that cases like these were going to mean more than they have.”

With the Blue Water case, it’s easy to see why the push to prosecute continues. “The Attorney General’s office is running the show,” Jim reported. “He’s in charge in the courtroom.”

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LAPEER — Attorneys for a local medical marijuana activist will get an opportunity, probably sometime in the next 30 days, to square off with the county’s top law enforcement officer and the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Dept.’s most senior detective.

Last month Neil Rockind, a Southfield attorney, an associate at Rockind Law, filed a contempt of court complaint against Lapeer County Prosecutor Tim Turkelson and Det./Lt. Gary Parks on behalf of Jamie Fricke, 35, of Lapeer.

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Fricke was arrested four times between February and May of 2012 on what Fricke characterizes as unwarranted drug charges.

Last summer after Chief Circuit Court Judge Nick O. Holowka recused Turkelson from the initial case. Turkelson said he decided to put all four cases together and turn them over to the state Attorney General’s Office for reassignment. The state Attorney General’s Office eventually turned the case over to the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s office and, according to court papers filed by Colin A. Daniels, one of Fricke’s attorneys, Saginaw County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Mark Gartener agreed to drop the felony charges in exchange for a guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to unlawfully transport medical marijuana.

Gartener and Fricke’s original defense attorney, Michael Komorn of Southfield, signed a stipulated order in front of Holowka May 12 that gave authorities until May 19 to return a 2010 Chevrolet Malibu, $127 in cash, a piece of luggage, some paperwork and a variety of marijuana products to Fricke.

Parks said items seized during the Feb. 21 search of Fricke’s home and during the May 10 traffic search were subject to the state’s controversial civil forfeiture process and when Fricke failed to file a bond within the required 20 days in each case she lost the ability to regain the property.

“They don’t just get to decide what (court) order they want follow,” Rockind said. He said his client has a valid order from Holowka and while the prosecutor and sheriff’s department can appeal it or file a motion to have it vacated, they can’t just ignore it.

He likened it to a defendant faced with a restitution order from a judge telling his attorney he didn’t think he owed that much and the attorney telling him not to pay the ordered amount. “How do you think Judge Holowka would react to that?” he asked.

 

On the other hand, Rockind said no police officer has ever been charged for following a judge’s order.

While Lapeer County Undersheriff Bob Rapson said last month that his agency “can’t legally return marijuana. It’s illegal under federal law. We can’t break federal law. We’re not going to do that.”

Rockind countered that under federal statute, law enforcement officials are “immunized from liability” when following a court order and Michigan law exempts medical marijuana from the state’s seizure law. He called the sheriff’s department’s position a “stupid argument.”

“Parks and Turkelson, without even passing go, are in contempt of court,” Rockind said. Following a 15-minute hearing in front of Holowka Monday afternoon Holowka agreed to hold a show-cause hearing, but didn’t immediately set a time and date.

Fricke’s supporters made much of Parks and Turkelson not being present for the hearing.

A sheriff’s department spokesman said Tuesday that Parks has been out of state on vacation for two weeks and was expected back to work on Friday July 17.

Turkelson said, “I was out of the office as well — on a preplanned day off — long before this thing was ever noticed up. In addition, I have never been served with anything related to this matter — including a notice of yesterday’s hearing. I have been left in the dark regarding this the entire time. I was not required to be at the motion (hearing) yesterday.”

Rockind was joined Tuesday by Ken Mogill, a Lake Orion attorney who specializes in attorney and legal ethics and is perhaps best known as one of the attorney’s representing April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, a Hazel Park couple whose challenge of Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriages went to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled same-sex unions legal nationwide.

In a statement released after the hearing Rockind said, “In an email Turkelson suggested that one way for Parks to avoid the order to return property to defendant Jamie Fricke was to ignore it so that Parks could explain himself to the judge. This was an outrageous abuse of power. No lawyer, let alone a prosecutor, should ever tell another to ignore a court order. This is inexcusable.”

The penalties for contempt, Rockind said, range from jail and fines and, for attorney Turkelson, possible bar discipline.

“Judge Holowka’s show-cause order reflects that court rules apply to all, including law enforcement officials and representatives of the state,” Rockind said.

 

http://thecountypress.mihomepaper.com/news/2015-07-19/News/Prosecutor_detective_face_showcause_hearing.html

Edited by bobandtorey
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  • 2 weeks later...

The owners and some employees of Blue Water Compassion Center facilities in St. Clair, Sanilac and Tuscola counties will proceed to trial in January on charges ranging from conducting a criminal enterprise to conspiracy to deliver or manufacture marijuana.

Debra, James, and Amanda Amsdill and Mark and Terra Sochacki did not take plea agreements offered to them by the state Attorney General’s office, according to court records.

Instead, the Amsdills and Sochackis will stand trial in January.

The Amdills’ and Sochackis’ charges stem from a federal investigation and December 2011 raids of the Blue Water Compassion Center facilities.

The Amsdills and Sochackis are accused of conspiring to aid or make possible the transfer of marijuana to patients who were not registered through the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act registry.

In a July 2013 court order, Lane dismissed charges against the Amsdills and Sochackis ranging from conducting a criminal enterprise to conspiracy to deliver or manufacture marijuana. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette appealed that ruling and the court of appeals ruled in December 2014 that Lane was wrong and sent the case back to her courtroom.

Debra and James Amsdill had the chance to plead guilty to conducting a criminal enterprise. The plea agreement would dismiss charges of delivery of marijuana and conspiracy to deliver marijuana charges.

Amanda Amsdill had the chance to plead to conspiracy to deliver marijuana. A charge of maintaining a criminal enterprise would have been dismissed.

Mark and Terra Sochacki had the chance to plead guilty to attempted delivery of marijuana, a high misdemeanor. The plea agreement would dismiss charges of delivery and manufacturing of a controlled substance.

The deadline to take the plea deals was Monday.The five are scheduled to go to trial Jan. 26.

An evidentiary hearing to discuss a motion claiming the five were entrapped by investigators is scheduled for Nov. 24.

 

http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2015/10/12/medical-marijuana-case-moving-trial/73804020/

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transfer of marijuana to patients who were not registered through the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act registry

other than that.....it seems ok to have sold to more than their five patients !!! YeeeeHAAAA!!!! dispensaries are legal, or else schuette would have hammered them for that too right?

thanks for the updates b&t !

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