Attorneys Employ Unusual Tactic In Marijuana Case

[420 Warrior]

Red Bluff Pair Seeking Nonjury Trial

Attorneys for a Red Bluff pair charged in connection with a marijuana-growing operation are seeking a nonjury trial that would speed the route to an appeal.

Longtime event promoter Joe Froome, 49, and his son-in-law, 28-year-old Daniel Ludwig, were in Tehama County Superior Court on Tuesday with their Oakland attorneys, William Panzer and James Silva. Froome and Ludwig are facing charges of cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale.

Judge S. William Abel, the retired Colusa County Superior Court jurist assigned to the case, granted a two-week delay in pretrial proceedings. In the meantime, defense lawyers and Assistant District Attorney Matt Rogers will determine what in the case they can agree on, returning to court at 9 a.m. Feb. 21.

A two-week jury trial is set to begin March 5, but Panzer said after the hearing he's seeking a "slow plea," essentially a court trial in which the judge would review preliminary hearing transcripts and agreed-upon facts in the case and issue a ruling. That would allow the defense to preserve all its appellate issues for consideration by the higher court, the 3rd District Court of Appeal, Panzer said.

At issue throughout the case, now in its third year, is whether patients have a right to associate and exchange money for their cannabis. The prosecution has challenged that, and "the court has basically agreed with the people, which would render all of our evidence inadmissible," Panzer said. Should the judge agree to the slow-plea proposal, that hearing presumably would go forward March 5.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Rogers said in his north state experience the kind of proceeding Panzer envisions is highly unusual, noting that court trials typically include witness testimony.

"I do not know of this ( ever ) being done in Tehama County," he said Tuesday afternoon.

Panzer is co-author of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

Froome and Ludwig maintain they were running a legal medical cannabis collective at the time of an Oct. 21, 2009, raid on a Baker Road warehouse. Agents seized more than 400 plants and 30 pounds of drying marijuana.

Froome also faces eight counts of money laundering in the case.

News Hawk - 420 Warrior 420 MAGAZINE
Location: Redding, CA
Source: Record Searchlight
Author: Janet O'Neill
Contact: letters@redding.com
Copyright: 2012 Record Searchlight
Website: www.redding.com

 

[oldred28]

I'll be Praying for them.

 

[Newfriend]

Me again 420 Warrior

"""Froome and Ludwig maintain they were running a legal medical cannabis collective at the time of an Oct. 21, 2009, raid on a Baker Road warehouse. Agents seized more than 400 plants and 30 pounds of drying marijuana.
Froome also faces eight counts of money laundering in the case. """"

First of all, I grow 12 plants under a 1000w.
I grow enough Meds for me and the wife and 2 of my Nam Vets, we have plenty.
We all have our Dr. recomendation and I have a caregiver certificate.
I feel the above artical is what is wrong in the cannabus industry as well as with America today.
GREED $$$$$$$$$$
The have and the have nots.
I don't know all the details of the above artical, but it sound like a full blown money making operation.
Please correct me if i am out of line.
A long time toker.

Please continue you insite and input, I do enjoy reading them, even if I don't always agree.

 

[oldred28]

i agree but, any pot bust is a bad pot bust and a real waste of public resources IMO

 

[420 Warrior]

I personally feel that if someone is operating ANY business outside the realm of that states written law (even MMJ laws) they should be held accountable for their actions...IMHO.

Just because we agree with and want sensible MMJ laws, that shouldn't mean that only a few have to follow them and others have a green light to illegally make money off of them.

I'm not quite sure if that's the case here or not? But if there is shady dealings going on here, they should face the music for their actions, otherwise this could turn into a free for all of illegal money making schemes, thus putting all legit MMJ laws in jeopardy.

I know we're all passionate about what should be legal where Cannabis is concerned but it's the "One Bad Apple" effect that worries me about these types of cases...Operating illegally, could ruin it for everyone and I know that no one want's that!

That's just my perspective, from the outside looking in.

P.S. Thank's for the vote of confidence Newfriend, it means the world to me brother.

 

[oldred28]

i would agree, but the laws were created illegally with lies and deception. you can't have a revolution without acting outside the law. face it if the man said milk is dangerous so it is illegal now, are you going to stop feeding your children?
personnaly, i think we should drop seeds anywhere and everywhere we can. they would have to give up eventually if it grew everywhere. we the people should always stand up against those who would violate our right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. i hear that the leaves on tomato plants are toxic, therefore the man should make laws against tomato and that way enslave and control even more self thinking human beings.

 

[oldred28]

one more thing, we should do our best to help bust all the people at the top for the stupid crap they do and let them find out how it feels to have their rights taken away and put in a cage like an animal. then they'd think about changing the law. personally i'd have no problem planting some seeds on polititians property then turning them in. see how they'd like having their family ripped away from them and all there personal property taken away for a "plant"
Peace, Brother's and Sisters! have a Marijuanafull day.


ps.
not really advocating the breaking of any laws, it just pisses me off seeing so many families being a burdon on our welfare system because the breadwinner of the family is kidnapped and imprisoned after harming no one! "no victim no crime"
and yet pedophiles, rapists, murderers, muggers and thieves run the streets because there's not enough space in the prisons for them.

 

[420 Warrior]

I agree 420% with you oldred, there should never be an arrest for Cannabis in any way, shape or form but seeing that the current laws do have rules to fallow, though they are not necessarily favorable, they are still the rules...For better or worse.

I just don't want some people messing it up for everyone else.

I want weed legalized here in GA but if people who are on the fence about it, see that their is still illegal activity going on with it? How do we expect them to give it the respect and support it deserves?

I just want it to be treated as a legit thing, not just going against the grain to scheme money in a greedy fashion.

The opposition doesn't need anymore ammunition to throw back at us and operating illegally gives them this ammunition.

We have to keep in mind that we are being held under a microscope and anything we do wrong at this point will just feed more into their way of thinking. Let's just quit giving them excuses!

When we do have final victory, then we can tweak things to be more in our favor but until then, let's not ruin it for everyone else who needs their states to recognize the benefits of Cannabis, shall we? Give them no more excuses, I say!

Breaking the law is not helping our mission...IMO!

 

[oldred28]

I hear ya Bro, personally i never sold my home grown meds, always been about my needs and friends needs. I think it would be a lot nicer if we could take the money out of the equation all together and just share God's bountifull harvest with everyone in need!
but that is my dream. I Love People, I Hate Greed.
and yes law breakers just cause more distractions and detract from what we have been fighting for, for oh so long. Stand up and be counted, but do so on the right side of the fence.

 

[oldred28]

400 plants is a lot. here we can have 12 personal plants and a caregiver can have 5 patients with a total of 60 plants and must be indoors in locked facility. 12 isn't bad if they didn't count cuttings, clones and veggies as usable. hard to get clones without going over limit when you grow several varieties

 

[420 Warrior]

400 plants is a lot. here we can have 12 personal plants and a caregiver can have 5 patients with a total of 60 plants and must be indoors in locked facility. 12 isn't bad if they didn't count cuttings, clones and veggies as usable. hard to get clones without going over limit when you grow several varieties

Yea, I can see how only 12 plants wouldn't give you much wiggle room...That's too bad and they should only be counting the ones in flower, so that you can have up to 2 or 3...Maybe 4 moms of different strains and a couple of cuttings off each (equaling 12) and then have 12 in flower...Or something along those lines? Sounds like there should be an easy fix to that law, for sure!

More MMJ law growing pains huh? I wish I knew what it was like to have 12 legal Marijuana plants? I wouldn't know!

 

[oldred28]

we got weed-you got jobs. unemployment going up up up a lot higher than what the news is saying.

 

[Newfriend]

Sanity finally starting to show in our (some) courts

Yea, I can see how only 12 plants wouldn't give you much wiggle room...That's too bad and they should only be counting the ones in flower, so that you can have up to 2 or 3...Maybe 4 moms of different strains and a couple of cuttings off each (equaling 12) and then have 12 in flower...Or something along those lines? Sounds like there should be an easy fix to that law, for sure!:

All is not lost:

New debate: When is medical marijuana "usable?"

ROGUE RIVER, Ore. – When police knocked on Josh Brewer's door to check for marijuana, even one of the nation's most liberal medical marijuana laws was put to the test.

Officers were fine with the two pounds 10 ounces he and a cousin had grown, harvested, and processed. That was under the pound and a half each allowed by law. And they didn't care about the 12 plants - six each - growing in the backyard. Also legal.

But after they discovered the additional two pounds 11 ounces drying on coat hangers suspended from the ceiling in the living room, officers arrested Brewer, sparking a legal battle over what was enough - in the maximum sense - for medical use, and what crossed the line into the potential for illegal sales.

After all, even 1.5 pounds by one measure would equal 1,200 joints.

A motion to dismiss the case because the drying marijuana was not "usable" under Oregon law was turned down by a judge. Brewer served 60 days in jail and received three years of probation, putting him back on conventional pain pills for a wrist he said he injured in a construction accident.

But Brewer, 24, beat the rap and has already started a new pot garden after the state attorney general's office conceded last week that, based on a 2007 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling, the marijuana still drying on coat hangers did not qualify as ready for use.

Read more here: New debate: When is medical marijuana "usable?"

 

[oldred28]

I read the artical. 1.5 - 2 lbs per plant? wish we could grow outside here. kinda limited indoors with 7 foot ceilings.
Hope the guy wins his suit. praise the court for making the right decision. God Bless them all!

 

[420 Warrior]

we got weed-you got jobs. unemployment going up up up a lot higher than what the news is saying.

Not really bro, we are struggling for jobs just as bad as everyone, for sure!

I'm just lucky I chose a field that this country relies on to function -->"If You Have It? It Was Brought By A Truck"!!