Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jan 2006
Source: Aspen Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2006 Aspen Daily News
Contact: http://www.aspendailynews.com/contact_us/form.htm
Website: http://www.aspendailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/635
Author: David Frey, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LAST MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE DROPPED

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - A district court judge has dropped  the last case
related to a 2004 raid of a Rifle home  where an anti-drug task force
found a large  marijuana-growing operation that residents maintained 
was a legal medical marijuana enterprise.

Authorities insisted the number of plants were far in  excess of the
number allowed by medical marijuana  permits, but police evidence
mishandling put the cases  in jeopardy.

On Monday, District Judge Daniel Petre agreed to drop  charges against
Justin Brownlee, the third to have the  charges against him dismissed.

"Based on the two previous rulings, we surmised a  similar ruling
would come down in Mr. Brownlee's case,"  said Deputy District
Attorney Scott Turner. "Therefore  in the interest of justice and not
wanting to spend the  court's time litigating the issues, we decided
to drop  the charges."

Turner filed the motion to dismiss the case on Friday,  the first day
new District Attorney Martin Beeson took  office, but he said the
decision began under previous  District Attorney Colleen Truden.

"It was just a matter of timing," said Turner, who was  hired by
Truden and kept on staff by Beeson. The case  was slated for a hearing
on Thursday.

Charges stemming from the June 2004 police raid began  to fall apart
when a defense lawyer showed that  investigators, unfamiliar with the
state's  voter-approved amendment legalizing marijuana  cultivation,
wrongfully destroyed evidence. A judge  ruled that jurors wouldn't be
allowed to see much of  the remaining evidence.

Brownlee's uncle Gene Brownlee and his then-wife  Jennifer Ryan were
moving into the Rifle apartment when  a building caretaker noticed a
display of plants, an  irrigation system and an automated grow light
system in  the apartment's bottom floor. He contacted authorities. 
The Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team raided the  apartment and
arrested the couple, Brownlee and family  friend Drew Gillespie.

Ryan said she was certified as a medical marijuana  grower and was
allowed to grow marijuana. Gene Brownlee  said he was allowed to use
the drug to help control a  chronic ailment of the esophagus.

Officers said they found 131 plants in the apartment.  They took leaf
samples from the large plants and  destroyed the plants themselves,
and uprooted 23 small  plants and preserved them, roots and all, in
evidence  bags.

But the state medical marijuana law requires that all  the plants be
preserved in the case an alleged medical  marijuana growing operation
is targeted. Officers said  they were unfamiliar with the requirement
when they  began destroying the plants and after learning of it, 
continued to destroy them and took them to a landfill.

In Ryan's case, District Judge James Boyd allowed only  the whole
plants to be entered as evidence, and since  Ryan had a license to
grow 24 plants, prosecutors  dropped the case. District Judge Daniel
Petre reached a  similar decision in Gene Brownlee's case, prompting 
prosecutors to drop that case, too.

Only Gillespie received any charges. He pleaded guilty  to cultivation
charges and is on probation.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin