Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jun 2010
Source: Oroville Mercury-Register (CA)
Copyright: 2010 Oroville Mercury Register
Contact:  http://www.orovillemr.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2277
Author: Terry Vau Dell

WITNESSES TESTIFY IN FATHER-SON POT TRIAL

OROVILLE - Several people testified in court Tuesday  that they were
members of a loosely organized  "coalition" to grow medical marijuana.

The witnesses were called by the attorneys for a Concow  man and his
father to counter charges the defendants  were using California's
medical marijuana law as a  cover to illegally sell pot.

"We were trying to provide access for people who  couldn't get their
medicine. ... Nobody expressed that  they wanted to sell marijuana,"
said Andrew Ringel, a  member of the coalition.

He was one of about ten defense witnesses who are  testifying under a
grant of immunity on behalf of  Michael and Sean Kelly, whose rural
Concow property was  twice raided by Butte County sheriff's officers
in late  2008 and June 2009.

A total of about 337 plants in various stages of growth  were seized
during the two busts.

Butte County Assistant District Attorney Helen Harberts  had initially
granted immunity to only two civilian  witnesses, who claimed they did
not know how their  medical marijuana scripts wound up at the Concow
grow  sites.

Michael Kelly's lawyer, Jodea Foster, objected Monday  that the
prosecutor was effectively preventing him from  proving the existence
of the medical marijuana  coalition, and requested Judge William Lamb
to grant  immunity to the defense witnesses on his own.

That became unnecessary when Harberts announced Tuesday  morning that
she was concerned about "the state of the  record," and authorized
immunity from prosecution  to virtually every witness in the case.

Several individuals testified that they participated to  some extent
in the planting and tending of a 35-plant  medical marijuana garden
during the summer of 2008 on  the Kellys' Piute Drive residence in
Concow.

One man who described himself as a "mental patient"  conceded he was
unable to contribute either physical  labor or money to the effort.

Roger Dykes, who said he had undergone surgery for a  serious back
injury, told the jury he gave his  daughter's boyfriend his medical
marijuana script,  asking him to "put in six plants for me."

Dykes said he had only met Michael Kelly "a couple of  times," and
conceded there was never any discussion  about reimbursing anyone for
his marijuana.

But most of the others called by the defense testified  they actively
participated in the cultivation process  as members of a lawful coalition.

"Mike Kelly was doing us a favor in letting him use his  property to
get our medicine," said Joseph Black, who  testified to supplying his
own soil and tending his six  plants.

Jacob Moore told the jury that he and his father were  involved in the
cultivation of six medical marijuana  plants apiece on the Piute Drive
site. He said he saw  as many as seven others working the garden at
various  times there that summer.

Moore said that he and his dad had visited the grow  site only a
couple days before sheriff's detectives  uprooted the plants on Oct.
20, 2008.

When officers returned the next June, they found a  couple hundred
immature pot plants and "clones" at the  Piute property and a second
site on Jordan Hill Road  where Mike Kelly had lived prior to it being
destroyed  during a mid-summer 2008 wildfire.

Harberts pointed out that officers had seized all the  medical
marijuana scripts during the first bust and  asked how Moore's script
ended up being posted at one  of the two gardens raided the following
June.

The witness remembered having "some discussion" with  Michael Kelly
about replanting that spring, but "it was  never set in stone."

Fellow coalition member Andrew Ringel said he had known  the younger
Kelly since childhood.

He estimated there had been as many as 15 members in  the Concow
medical marijuana coalition.

"We all knew patients were having difficulty getting  pot. ... We were
trying to put together some good  people, it was not super organized;
there wasn't any  clear ideas of what each person would do," Ringel
told  the jury.

After their first garden was raided, he said the group  got "scared,"
and that the subsequent year's grows were  much more structured and
tightly controlled in a vain  effort to steer clear of the law.

Under questioning by Sean Kelly's attorney, Robert  Radcliffe, Ringel
insisted that neither he nor anybody  else in the group ever mentioned
selling marijuana for  profit.

"I didn't see anything illegal; there were 99 plants  being grown
around us," Ringel told the jury.

The younger Kelly has asserted that police targeted  their property
after a Butte County jury had acquitted  him of identical marijuana
cultivation and possession  for sale charges in 2003.

The current trial is in recess today and could go to  jury as early as
Thursday. 
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