Pubdate: Fri, 16 May 2008
Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2008 The Modesto Bee
Contact:  http://www.modbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271
Author: John Ellis, The Fresno Bee
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries

TWO MODESTO MEN FOUND GUILTY IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE

FRESNO -- A federal jury found two Modesto men guilty Thursday of 
drug charges for operating a medical marijuana dispensary, which 
raked in $6 million to $9 million in less than two years.

Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Ruiz Montes, both 27, immediately were 
taken into custody.

Both men were convicted of manufacturing marijuana and distributing 
the drug, as well as operating a continuing criminal enterprise, a 
felony that carries a mandatory 20-year minimum prison term, with the 
possibility of life behind bars.

Jurors cleared each man on weapons charges but deadlocked on a 
conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger scheduled a 
May 27 hearing, when the government will decide whether to retry the 
men on the conspiracy charge.

Anthony Capozzi, who represented Scarmazzo, said after the verdict 
that it was "an unfair prosecution," in which the federal government 
piled on criminal charges against two people who never intended to 
break the law.

"It's an injustice for these people to go away for 20 years," he said.

But U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said Montes and Scarmazzo's 
business had nothing to do with the medical use of marijuana.

"They were operating as drug dealers, plain and simple," he said in a 
telephone interview after the verdict.

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden supported the jury's decision.

"I think it's a correct verdict," he said. "The jury validated this 
was a criminal enterprise."

In September 2006, federal authorities raided the California 
Healthcare Collective in Modesto after a long investigation that 
included undercover drug buys.

Scarmazzo and Montes said they never intended to break the law. The 
business, their attorneys said, was "aboveboard," obtaining a 
business license, paying taxes and making sure patients had doctors' 
notes before purchases.

"Everything the defendants did was legal under state law," Capozzi 
said after the verdict. But neither he nor Robert Forkner, who 
represented Montes, were able to use state law as a defense because 
under federal law, marijuana is illegal.

Prosecutors said federal law not only trumped state law, but the two 
men also violated state law because their business wasn't a nonprofit 
enterprise.

Defense attorneys offered evidence that the business was at one point 
transformed into a nonprofit, but prosecutors said Scarmazzo and 
Montes spent collective money for nonbusiness items, in addition to 
their salaries.

Among the items the two men bought were jet skis and a $180,000 Mercedes-Benz.

A key part of the trial was a hip-hop video that featured Scarmazzo 
uttering the line "(expletive) the feds."

Scarmazzo, a musician and aspiring hip-hop artist, took the stand to 
explain, saying it was his way of showing that the federal government 
"is turning a blind eye" to medical marijuana, which he said could help people.

The video was perhaps the most sensational part of the trial, and 
there were suggestions from Capozzi that Scarmazzo was on trial only 
because he dared to challenge the federal government's authority.

Jurors deliberated for two days before delivering their verdict.

One juror, Craig Will of Tuolumne County, said after the verdict that 
he expected the two men to get probation or a few months in prison.

"I'm really appalled to discover that there's a 20-year mandatory 
minimum on the continuing criminal enterprise charge," he said.

Capozzi said he plans to seek a new trial and will appeal to the 9th 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because he said he believes there was 
insufficient evidence to merit the continuing criminal enterprise verdict. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake