OROVILLE -- Backing the idea that an earlier proposed court order had been a joke, a judge Wednesday formerly denied a defense motion seeking the return of large amounts of seized medical marijuana plants to a Concow collective. Assigned Judge William Lamb pointed out no members of the purported collective had petitioned the court for the pot's return, and that in any event, he felt the amount confiscated by sheriff's officers exceeded what was medically necessary by the group. A jury earlier this year had acquitted Michael Kelly and his father, Sean Kelly, of identical felony charges of illegal cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale. [continues 335 words]
OROVILLE - A judge is now saying that a proposed court order to return seized medical marijuana to members of a Concow collective was clearly intended as a "joke," but the attorney for a man acquitted by a jury in the case isn't laughing. "I didn't understand this to be a joke," Chico attorney Jodea Foster said Wednesday of discussions that took place in the judge's chambers last month over a motion Foster filed seeking the return of 56 marijuana plants and more than 250 starter "clones." [continues 645 words]
OROVILLE -- Prosecutors said they are treating as a "joke" a proposed court order to return hundreds of seized medical marijuana plants to members of a Concow-area collective following a jury acquittal. A Butte County Superior Court jury last month found a Concow man and his father, Michael and Sean Kelly, not guilty of illegal cultivation and possession of pot for sale. The pair claimed to be part of a 15-member group of medical marijuana patients that were collectively growing marijuana on two pieces of property the defendants owned. [continues 438 words]
OROVILLE -- A jury on Tuesday acquitted two Concow men of criminal charges in a medical marijuana grow on their property. Jurors said after the verdict they agreed Michael Edmond Kelly, 29, and his father Sean Joseph Kelly, 57, were part of a lawful medical marijuana collective. The Kellys were found not guilty of two counts each of possession of marijuana for sale and illegal cultivation. The son, who was acquitted in an unrelated 2003 medical marijuana trial, was found guilty of a misdemeanor Fish and Game violation for diverting or obstructing a stream to irrigate one or more of the gardens. [continues 629 words]
OROVILLE -- A jury today will likely not be asked to consider whether two Concow men accused of illegal cultivation and possession of pot for sale were part of a lawful medical marijuana collective. In refusing to give an instruction pertaining to collectives sought by the defense, assigned Judge William Lamb said he felt the evidence showed the amount of marijuana being grown on the defendants' property exceeded the "medical usage" of the individual patients. Jodea Foster, the attorney for Michael Kelly, charged outside of court it was an error and a violation of the defendant's rights not to give the defense instruction, or even to define what a collective is. [continues 535 words]
OROVILLE -- A Concow man accused of growing pot for sale with his father took the witness stand Thursday to insist they were part of a lawful 16-member medical marijuana collective. Characterizing himself as a "cannabis consultant," Michael Edmond Kelly, 29, told the Butte County Superior Court jury that he and his father, Sean Kelly, 57, helped put the organization together to help sick people get access to their medicine, not to make a profit. "This was a family collective, fathers and sons caring for one another; That's what America is all about," the defendant said. [continues 715 words]
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. [continues 704 words]
OROVILLE -- One of more than a dozen Butte County defendants convicted in a "mega" medical marijuana scam learned to his relief Wednesday that honesty really does have its own rewards. Asher Leon Prince of Chico had been facing 120 days in jail for his part in the crime. But assistant district attorney Helen Harberts asked the judge Wednesday to grant Prince a 60-day "discount" on his sentence for telling the truth about the illegal scheme when questioned. The mass arrests occurred in September 2008, after local authorities noticed the names of the same patients posted at multiple indoor and outdoor medical marijuana "collectives" in Chico and Butte County foothills. [continues 146 words]
OROVILLE -- An attorney said he will challenge a Butte County judge's order Tuesday barring a drug offender with heart disease from continuing to use medical marijuana while he is on probation, absent approval by a cardiologist. Arthur Lee Jenkins, 48, of Concow contends the court ban conflicts with the voter's approval in 1996 allowing medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, which Jenkins possesses. But the prosecutor points out the Concow man was convicted with nearly a dozen others in a purported scam to use the medical marijuana law as a cover to sell the drug for profit. [continues 493 words]
SACRAMENTO — In a landmark decision, an appeals court has upheld the right of a member of a Paradise medical marijuana collective to sue the county over an order by a sheriff's deputy to uproot most of his plants. American's For Safe Access, the organization which brought the lawsuit on behalf of David Williams, 56, contends it is the first time a California court in a published opinion has authorized a medical marijuana patient to seek money damages to protect his civil rights. [continues 568 words]
OROVILLE - Prosecutors Wednesday tried to show a link between a series of allegedly illegal medical marijuana gardens in Butte County. A judge is hearing evidence in the complicated case to determine whether 13 accused defendants should stand trial on felony charges of marijuana cultivation and possession of pot for sales. A Butte County sheriff's investigator testified Wednesday that officers found medicinal marijuana scripts with many of the same patients' names on them posted during raids last September on five indoor and outdoor grows in the foothills near Berry Creek and Concow and a single residence in Chico. [continues 788 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - A three-judge panel has upheld the conviction and ten-year sentence of a Chico man, who is widely believed to be the first medical marijuana patient to be prosecuted under federal law in California. The attorney for Bryan Epis, now in his early 40s, indicated she will request the Chico man be allowed to remain free on bail pending a re-hearing of the case before the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. Epis was originally convicted by a federal jury in 2002 of conspiring to manufacture more than 1,000 marijuana plants out of his West Francis Willard Avenue residence. [continues 471 words]
OROVILLE -- A Chico woman, accused of giving her 5-year-old daughter a marijuana brownie, was acquitted Thursday of felony child endangerment, with the jury deadlocked over a lesser misdemeanor version of the same charge. The prosecutor had asked the Butte County Superior Court jury to convict Madeline McChesney, 32, of "willful criminal negligence" by putting her daughter at risk of great bodily harm or death. In closing summation Thursday afternoon, McChesney's lawyer, Jodea Foster, argued the single mother simply made an "error in judgment," caused in part by several anti-depressant medications she was taking, and that the child was never at risk of serious harm. [continues 618 words]
There are strong opinions on both sides for and against Proposition 5, the prison reform and drug treatment initiative on Tuesday's ballot. Supporters say the Nonviolent Offenders Rehabilitation Act will reduce current prison overcrowding by removing thousands of drug users from the penal system, cutting parole for those who seek treatment from three years to as little as six months, while conversely increasing parole time for people convicted of violent or sex crimes. Proposition 5 would provide about $460 million a year -- nearly triple the current amount -- to divert a wider variety of drug-related offenders into treatment, getting to the root of their addiction instead of incarcerating them, say advocates. [continues 744 words]
OROVILLE -- A Vallejo man went on trial Wednesday, charged with the murders of two of three men killed in a gun battle during a marijuana buy at an Oroville motel in 2006. Though there is no evidence Deandre Tyrone Lowe, now 39, was ever armed, prosecutors are charging him with murder under the so-called "felony murder rule," which holds accomplices liable for deaths that occur during certain serious crimes. According to police reports, during the Oct. 22, 2006, transaction at the Best Value Inn in Oroville, one of four would-be buyers, Dejuan Dean, 34, of Vallejo, pulled a gun and ordered the other two men with him -- including Lowe -- to scoop up the money and drugs, from three Concow area pot sellers. [continues 835 words]
OROVILLE -- When a Paradise woman began growing and selling medical marijuana as part of a "collective" involving more than 50 other local patients, she never thought she could end up losing her home. Documents show that after being contacted by Butte County sheriff's officers, federal prosecutors obtained a lien against Patricia Hatton's two-bedroom residence under a separate asset-forfeiture action in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Though Hatton said she still doesn't feel she committed a crime, she agreed to plead guilty to pot cultivation in exchange for receiving a 20 percent share of the sale of her 6893 Lunar Lane house, which the ridge woman said was recently appraised at $190,000. [continues 519 words]
OROVILLE -- In a surprise move, federal prosecutors Tuesday took over a Chico pot cultivation case, effectively depriving the suspect of a medical marijuana defense in court, his attorney objected. At the request of the U.S Attorney in Sacramento, the Butte County District Attorney's Office moved in court Tuesday to dismiss local charges against Robert Gordon Rasmussen, 23. Federal prosecutors intend to seek an indictment on new marijuana cultivation charges, which could carry up to 20 years in prison. The Chico man is accused of growing about 210 marijuana plants at his Bennington Drive home earlier this year. [continues 762 words]
A Superior Court judge has ruled law enforcement response toward medical marijuana co-operatives or collectives in Butte County is out of step with state law. The ruling, which was hailed by medical pot proponents, permits a civil lawsuit to go forward brought by a former Oroville man who claims that under threat of arrest in 2005, he was forced to destroy most of the plants he was growing lawfully as part of a collective with six other medical marijuana patients. [continues 976 words]
OROVILLE -- A judge Thursday refused to toss out Butte County's first medical marijuana co-op case. The attorney for a Chico man charged with possessing more than 210 pot plants, which he claimed he was growing for himself and six other medical marijuana users, claimed in court he has a virtual immunity from prosecution. But Butte County Superior Court Judge Sandra McLean sided with the prosecution, ruling that whether Robert Gordon Rasmussen was part of a lawful medical marijuana collective is an issue for a jury to decide. [continues 567 words]
