Pubdate: Thu, 31 Jan 2013
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2013 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Gwen Florio, Missoulian

MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWER WILLIAMS TO BE SENTENCED DESPITE NEW FILING

Missoula MT. - A last-minute flurry of activity surrounding the case
of convicted medical marijuana grower Chris Williams did not halt
Williams' scheduled sentencing in U.S. District Court in Missoula on
Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, federal Judge Dana Christensen ordered that a
sentencing memorandum, dated Monday, from an Ohio State University law
professor would not be given the weight of an official memorandum.

Christensen said the memorandum from Douglas Berman, who has raised
questions about a plea agreement in the case, was untimely and didn't
comply with local rules.

"He is a meddler at best," Christensen wrote of Berman's recent
interest in the case. "This is not an academic exercise. Mr. Williams'
liberty is at stake."

Berman did not respond Thursday to a telephone call and email seeking
comment.

Meanwhile, a group of marijuana advocates was traveling from
California to Missoula in a green-painted school bus, picking up
people along the way so they could appear in support of Williams at
his sentencing.

Among them was Joe Grumbine of Lake Elsinore, Calif., a member of The
Human Solution, a group that tries to pack courtrooms on behalf of
people accused in marijuana cases.

As of midafternoon Thursday, the bus was midway between Seattle and
Spokane and nine people were aboard, he said. Others planned to meet
them in Missoula, he said.

"Chris Williams doesn't belong in prison and we need to show support,"
Grumbine said.

Williams was among several people charged with federal drug offenses
after a series of raids on marijuana businesses around Montana in
March 2011, and the only one to insist upon a jury trial rather than
reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

He was convicted in September on four counts involving marijuana
production and distribution, and four of having a firearm in
conjunction with drug distribution. Those convictions carried a
mandatory minimum of 80 to 90 years in prison, but a post-verdict plea
deal could have dropped that minimum to five years.

According to that deal, if Williams agreed not to appeal his
conviction, the U.S. Attorney's Office would drop all but two of the
charges and a $1.2 million forfeiture from Montana Cannabis, the
Helena medical marijuana company in which he was a partner.

Enter Berman, who recently wrote that the extreme sentence Williams
faced amounted to coercion, and expressed a willingness to help
Williams. But mindful of Montana state law that says a defendant must
reach out to the person first, Berman said he'd never contacted
Williams directly.

Still, Williams' federal defender, Michael Donahoe of Helena, tried to
withdraw from the case last month, saying that because of Berman's
comments, his client had lost confidence in his ability to seek the
best sentence. Christensen denied that request.

In court documents filed Thursday, Donahoe wrote that Berman's
proposed sentencing memorandum is yet another action that has
"interfered with, if not wholly undermined, his attorney/client
relationship with Mr. Williams."

Berman's "novel, if not questionable, legal theories have zero chance
of succeeding before this court," but could still tempt Williams "to
abandon, at his peril" the settlement appeal, Donahoe wrote.

"With Amicus like Berman," he wrote, "who needs enemies."

Christensen ordered that Berman's information could be considered
along with all the other sentencing materials submitted Friday.
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