Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
A Gillette man was sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison for selling pipes and bongs at his hippie-inspired head shops.
The sentence came more than two months after a federal jury convicted Jeffrey Wayne Doles of three felony counts of selling drug paraphernalia.
Two of the charges stemmed from selling pipes and bongs at his Gillette head shop, Hip Hop Hippies, while the third came from selling paraphernalia at a separate store in Casper.
The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer, is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle over whether the pipes and bongs are in fact paraphernalia. Doles, 38, said he will appeal the conviction and is confident it will be overturned.
“I think my chances are 100 percent on winning on appeal,” he said.
Doles has argued that the pipes and bongs he sold were meant for smoking tobacco and legal herbs such as Merlin’s Blend, a commercial meditative herb often sold in smoke shops. He contends that it isn’t his fault that some people choose to use those products to smoke marijuana.
Over the years, the case has become a convoluted legal maze, with separate criminal trials in both federal and state court as well as a civil claim that was decided in state court. If there is an appeal, it will go before the U.S. 10th District Court of Appeals in Denver.
Police first raided the Gillette head shop in August 2005 and confiscated some 130 pipes and bongs. Doles was arrested two days later after reopening his store with an even larger shipment of smoking accessories.
A Campbell County jury found him not guilty in January 2006 of selling drug paraphernalia. Within days, Doles reopened his store in Gillette and in June of that year, he launched another head shop in Casper.
But the legal victory proved to be short-lived. State prosecutors won the right to destroy Doles’ hardware in a September 2006 civil proceeding in which District Judge Michael “Nick” Deegan ruled that the pipes and bongs were indeed drug paraphernalia. The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld that decision in August 2007.
Doles’ acquittal in state court was not at issue in the federal case. In fact, the defense wasn’t even allowed to mention the not-guilty verdict during the federal trial, an issue that likely will be the backbone of Doles’ appeal.
His attorney, Daniel Blythe, had argued that the federal charges constitute double jeopardy, or more than one prosecution for the same crime.
But in September Brimmer struck down this argument, citing a recent ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the killing of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper during a drug raid. The ruling said federal and state charges based on the same facts are not double jeopardy.
He also denied the defense’s argument that prosecutors violated the Petite policy, which says federal charges are not to be filed after a case has been resolved in state court. The judges in the Oklahoma case found that the policy was neither law nor precedent, only a guideline to help prosecutors decide how to use their resources.
Yet Doles disagrees, calling his federal trial a “bold and blatant” case of double jeopardy.
“Something’s wrong with the system more than something’s wrong with Jeffrey Doles,” he said. “It’s just a sick process.”
The head shop in Gillette first opened in July 2005 at 610 S. Butler Spaeth Road. Doles told The News-Record that before it was shut down, the business brought in about $6,000 a week.
More than 500 pipes and bongs were confiscated from the Gillette head shop during three separate raids, according to police inventory records. Officers also seized several hundred packages of rolling papers and other smoking accessories, police Sgt. Chuck Deaton said.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Gillette News-Record.
Author: TONY RAAP
Copyright: 2008 Gillette News-Record.
Contact: The Gillette News-Record: Front
Website: The Gillette News-Record: Today
The sentence came more than two months after a federal jury convicted Jeffrey Wayne Doles of three felony counts of selling drug paraphernalia.
Two of the charges stemmed from selling pipes and bongs at his Gillette head shop, Hip Hop Hippies, while the third came from selling paraphernalia at a separate store in Casper.
The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer, is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle over whether the pipes and bongs are in fact paraphernalia. Doles, 38, said he will appeal the conviction and is confident it will be overturned.
“I think my chances are 100 percent on winning on appeal,” he said.
Doles has argued that the pipes and bongs he sold were meant for smoking tobacco and legal herbs such as Merlin’s Blend, a commercial meditative herb often sold in smoke shops. He contends that it isn’t his fault that some people choose to use those products to smoke marijuana.
Over the years, the case has become a convoluted legal maze, with separate criminal trials in both federal and state court as well as a civil claim that was decided in state court. If there is an appeal, it will go before the U.S. 10th District Court of Appeals in Denver.
Police first raided the Gillette head shop in August 2005 and confiscated some 130 pipes and bongs. Doles was arrested two days later after reopening his store with an even larger shipment of smoking accessories.
A Campbell County jury found him not guilty in January 2006 of selling drug paraphernalia. Within days, Doles reopened his store in Gillette and in June of that year, he launched another head shop in Casper.
But the legal victory proved to be short-lived. State prosecutors won the right to destroy Doles’ hardware in a September 2006 civil proceeding in which District Judge Michael “Nick” Deegan ruled that the pipes and bongs were indeed drug paraphernalia. The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld that decision in August 2007.
Doles’ acquittal in state court was not at issue in the federal case. In fact, the defense wasn’t even allowed to mention the not-guilty verdict during the federal trial, an issue that likely will be the backbone of Doles’ appeal.
His attorney, Daniel Blythe, had argued that the federal charges constitute double jeopardy, or more than one prosecution for the same crime.
But in September Brimmer struck down this argument, citing a recent ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the killing of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper during a drug raid. The ruling said federal and state charges based on the same facts are not double jeopardy.
He also denied the defense’s argument that prosecutors violated the Petite policy, which says federal charges are not to be filed after a case has been resolved in state court. The judges in the Oklahoma case found that the policy was neither law nor precedent, only a guideline to help prosecutors decide how to use their resources.
Yet Doles disagrees, calling his federal trial a “bold and blatant” case of double jeopardy.
“Something’s wrong with the system more than something’s wrong with Jeffrey Doles,” he said. “It’s just a sick process.”
The head shop in Gillette first opened in July 2005 at 610 S. Butler Spaeth Road. Doles told The News-Record that before it was shut down, the business brought in about $6,000 a week.
More than 500 pipes and bongs were confiscated from the Gillette head shop during three separate raids, according to police inventory records. Officers also seized several hundred packages of rolling papers and other smoking accessories, police Sgt. Chuck Deaton said.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Gillette News-Record.
Author: TONY RAAP
Copyright: 2008 Gillette News-Record.
Contact: The Gillette News-Record: Front
Website: The Gillette News-Record: Today
