Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 2014
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2014 The Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailytribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579
Author: Michael P. McConnell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

FERNDALE POT DECRIMINALIZATION ORGANIZER SENTENCED TO PROBATION

An Oak Park man who gathered enough signatures to get marijuana
decriminalization on the ballot in Ferndale, where voters approved the
proposal last year, was sentenced to probation Tuesday for violating
election law.

Andrew Cissell, 26, was found guilty of a misdemeanor for using a
false address on the petitions he turned in to the Ferndale city clerk
to get the proposal on last November's ballot.

Cissell still faces trial next month before Oakland County Circuit
Judge Rudy Nichols on several counts of illegal delivery and
manufacture of marijuana.

He is also running in the August primary election as a Democratic
candidate for state representative for the 27th District, which
includes Royal Oak Township, Huntington Woods, Berkley, Ferndale, Oak
Park and Pleasant Ridge.

Though a jury found Cissell guilty of violating a Ferndale City
Charter requirement requiring that anyone initiating a petition drive
has to live in the city, the case was tried before Hazel Park 43rd
District Judge Charles Goedert.

The jury found Cissell was living at a house he owned in Oak Park,
rather than at his father's house in Ferndale as he claimed on his
petition paperwork.

Goedert on Tuesday sentenced Cissell to 18 months' probation and
ordered him to pay $1,855 in fines and costs.

While on probation Cissell, is prohibited from leaving the state or
using alcohol or drugs. He also has to do 200 hours of community
service and attend counseling classes on decision making.

If he violates the terms of his probation, Cissell faces 75 days in
jail.

"I think the sentence was a little excessive," he said. "But it was
not completely unfair."

Cissell's conviction on the election law violation had no effect on
the pot decriminalization ordinance that voters overwhelmingly passed
in Ferndale.

Though he still faces felony marijuana charges, Cissell said he is
currently collecting petition signatures to get a pot
decriminalization measure on the ballot in Oak Park.

He is working with a pot legalization organization called Safer
Michigan, which last year organized the state campaign to pass
marijuana decriminalization measures in Lansing, Jackson and Ferndale.

The group's co-founder, Tim Beck, has said Safer Michigan wants to get
similar decriminalization proposals on ballots in Oak Park, Hazel
Park, Utica, Port Huron, Mount Pleasant, East Lansing and possibly
other cities.

Cissell said his state representative candidacy is part of the
marijuana legalization movement in Michigan.

"I would really like to beat" the felony marijuana case, he said. "But
even if I'm in jail I'm going to be on the ballot in the August primary."
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MAP posted-by: Matt