cannabisnews.com: Rosenthal's Federal Drug Trial Turns Surreal





Rosenthal's Federal Drug Trial Turns Surreal
Posted by CN Staff on January 28, 2003 at 12:51:31 PT
By Ann Harrison, AlterNet
Source: AlterNet
They viewed the glossy color photographs of meticulously tended marijuana mother plants flourishing under timed lights inside an Oakland, Calif. warehouse. Then they watched a videotape showing DEA agents uprooting nearby marijuana cuttings to determine which had roots, and could thus be considered "plants" under the federal sentencing guidelines. It was all in a day's work for jurors in the ongoing, and often surreal, federal drug trial of former High Times advice columnist ''Ask Ed'' Rosenthal, who is facing 20 years in prison for cultivating medical cannabis. 
Federal prosecutors have built their case against Rosenthal by barring pre-trial testimony of Oakland city officials who said Rosenthal grew the plants for the city's medical marijuana program. But the government has subpoenaed testimony from an array of people who simply saw the plants, including a fellow grower, the proprietor of a medical cannabis club, Rosenthal's landlord, an electrician and even a fireman. These legal tactics offer a blueprint of the government's strategy to halt the distribution of medical marijuana in California – and perhaps in the other seven states that have voted for it. ''This is the federal government at war with its own citizens and I like to think that years from now we will look back on this as a dark chapter in our nation's history,'' said California State Assemblymember Mark Leno. ''The thought of a man like Ed Rosenthal being threatened with twenty years of imprisonment is an outrage. The man is not a criminal.'' Federal prosecutors contend that marijuana is illegal and do not recognize California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215) which permits patients to possess, grow and consume cannabis with a doctor's recommendation. Rosenthal, who has authored a half dozen how-to books on marijuana growing, has been charged with maintaining a place to grow marijuana at the Oakland warehouse and cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants at the site. He has also been charged with conspiring to grow more than 1,000 plants with Ken Hayes and Rick Watts at the Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco medical marijuana club. Prosecutors say Hayes fled to Seattle where he chartered a small plane and flew to a remote Canadian airfield with $13,000 hidden in his pants. Watts crashed his car after learning that he too was facing 20 years in prison and his attorney says his injuries prevent him from appearing in court. Rosenthal's trial has become a cause celeb in Northern California where activists have launched a billboard campaign to condemn the imprisonment of medical cannabis growers. The billboards read: ''Compassion, Not Federal Prison.'' Federal prosecutors made an unsuccessful appeal to the judge to keep Rosenthal and his attorneys from speaking to the press after the San Francisco Examiner published a front page photo of Rosenthal and his daughter with the headline, "My Dad's A Hero.'' The government kicked off its case against Rosenthal by subpoenaing James Halloran, his former marijuana cultivation and racquetball partner who was arrested in the same DEA sweep last February. Halloran testified that shortly after the passage of Prop. 215, he signed a lease on the 800-square-foot warehouse and brought in lights, fans and growing trays to raise a crop of cloned cannabis plants with Rosenthal. Halloran dissolved the partnership in 1998 and purchased plants from Rosenthal for his own 4,000 plant medical marijuana growing operation. Halloran, who was facing three life terms for these activities, agreed to cooperate with the government for a reduced sentence of 56 months. Rosenthal's former landlord, Leslie Wilmer, also testified that he saw Rosenthal's cannabis crop, as did German Sierra, a firefighter with the Oakland Fire Department. Sierra, who conducted a fire safety inspection at the warehouse, noted that Rosenthal had an Oakland business license. Both men were prevented from explaining why it did not occur to them to report the crop to police. ''I've ruled that the purpose for which the marijuana was grown is not a defense and is irrelevant,'' said Judge Charles Breyer. Judge Breyer also rejected the defense's argument that the government entrapped Rosenthal and blocked the testimony of a DEA agent who told local activists that he would respect California's medical cannabis laws. DEA agent Dan Tuey was permitted to take the stand to painstakingly document over 3,000 plants and cuttings seized from the warehouse, a process that appeared to exhaust jurors. Defense attorneys doggedly challenged the plant counts, but were admonished by the judge for commenting on the government's evidece.  Divide And Conquer The DEA contends that Rosenthal is using Prop. 215 as a smokescreen for drug profiteering, and prosecutors trying the case have attempted to turn growers and club operators against each other. When Hayes fled to Canada, his medical marijuana club underwent the same upheaval that many businesses endure when a founder suddenly leaves. But prosecutors moved to take advantage of the turmoil. ''The feds are using us as an example to scare all these other dispensers of medical cannabis into submission,'' said Ken Hayes, who is seeking political asylum in Canada. ''I didn't want to be used as a federal government trophy.'' Former club employee Robert Martin, who was forced to testify under a grant of immunity, alleged that Hayes drew down the club's accounts to pay for his exile. Bills went unpaid and the power was shut off. Martin, who now runs another medical marijuana club, began covering expenses out of his own pocket, but testified that he wrote Rosenthal bad checks for his plants because he believed Rosenthal was attempting to take over the operation. The prosecution then produced an unsigned letter to Rosenthal, seized from Watts' computer. The letter suggests that Rosenthal was selling bug-infested plants as an act of ''willfull sabotage'' to infect other growers and corner the medical marijuana market, a charge Rosenthal denies. Both Rosenthal and Watts discount the government's claim that there was a power struggle at the club. Rosenthal says he was simply concerned that the club, ''continue to take care of patients and supply them with marijuana.'' Watts says the Harm Reduction Center was being run by a board of directors that San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan had encouraged to avoid management disputes. ''I never intended to run the club,'' said Watts, who said he was in charge of building maintenance and overseeing the club's counseling program. Jane Weirick, a long-time medical marijuana activist and consultant to Bay Area medical cannabis dispensaries, said the Harm Reduction Center simply suffered from a lack of leadership. ''There was no one really qualified to run the place and we were concerned that the people who had legal control of it were becoming an embarrassment to the city,'' said Weirick. ''It was a very big ship with no rudder in an ocean full of icebergs.'' Leno, a former San Francisco city supervisor, believes that that the city should consider growing and distributing its own medical cannabis. Leno authored a successful ballot measure last November which directed the city to study the project. Some patients are frustrated that the measure did not compel the city to act, but Leno says a select committee of city supervisors is pursuing the issue. ''The question is how to give patients access to their medicine if the federal government is going to continue their assault on those growers who, at great risk, attempt to provide patients with their physician recommended medicine," said Leno. Ann Harrison is a San Francisco-based journalist. Source: AlterNetAuthor: Ann Harrison, AlterNetPublished: January 27, 2003Copyright: 2003 Independent Media InstituteContact: info alternet.org Website: http://www.alternet.org/DL: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15045Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.orgEd Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmPotshot - Ann Harrisonhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15257.shtmlThe Trial of Ed Rosenthal - Ann Harrisonhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15221.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on January 29, 2003 at 21:13:33 PT
Rosenthal Trial Update - Defense Begins Thursday 
    
 
Defense Begins Thursday in Federal Medical Marijuana Trial Former City Councilman to Testify; Judge Blocks OthersWednesday, January 29 -- The marijuana cultivation trial of author and activist Ed Rosenthal resumed today in San Francisco federal court with the testimony of several witnesses for the prosecution, and the judge’s refusal to allow the defense to put on the stand most of the witnesses they sought to have testify.Special Agent James Sweeney of the DEA took the stand to recount his seizure of a computer from the home of Richard Watts, a former manager of the Harm Reduction Center in San Francisco and one of Mr. Rosenthal’s indicted co-conspirators.An IRS computer specialist, Larry Murphy, then told the court how he had retrieved a letter from the harddrive of Mr. Watts. The letter was purported to Mr. Rosenthal about some plants that were delivered to the HRC, but the agent was unable to say if Mr. Watts had written the letter, or if it had ever been printed out and sent.A witness from the IRS, Pamela Woo, testified as to a phone number they linked to Ken Hayes, the executive director of the Harm Reduction Center and another of Mr. Rosenthal’s indicted co-conspirators. The records indicated that Mr. Rosenthal had called him on three different days, for a total the defense pointed out -- of no more than nine minutes. They also produced four months of phone records showing several dozen calls to the Harm Reduction Center, with an average call length of two minutes.Christopher Fay, a special agent of the DEA, testified about his undercover buy of 400+ small starter plants from the Harm Reduction Center. He said he had no way to know where the plants had come from, and had made no inquiries. He had never seen Mr. Rosenthal before, and had not seen him at the HRC. He had not counted the plants or determined if they had roots.The case agent for the DEA, John Pickett then told the court that he had counted the plants and checked for roots. Defense counsel Robert Eye noted in cross examination that there were at least two types of growing medium present, which Agent Pickett admitted was characteristic of different growers. He further conceded that he had no way to know if any of the plants purchased had come from Mr. Rosenthal, and that no documents had been seized in any of the searches that tied Mr. Rosenthal to the plants the undercover agent had purchased.The final witness for the prosecution, a special agent of the DEA, will return to the stand first thing on Thursday, to conclude his testimony about plants he seized from the Harm Reduction Center during the February 12, 2002 raids, and with that, the prosecution will rest.The defense will then give its opening argument, which they have reserved from the start of the trial. They plan on calling an expert witness, Dan Weaver, who will dispute the number of plants the DEA claims to have seized from both Mr. Rosenthal’s warehouse and the Harm Reduction Center. The prosecution contends that Mr. Rosenthal was involved in managing the cultivation of small marijuana starter plants, or clones, at the HRC.In addition to the expert witness, Nate Miley, formerly of the Oakland City Council and now an Alameda County Supervisor, will appear on behalf of Mr. Rosenthal. He is expected to testify that Mr. Rosenthal’s was completely open with city officials about his marijuana growing activities.The defense has also asked to put on the stand several character witnesses, which the presiding judge in the case, Charles Breyer, refused to allow.They include Keith Stroup, the executive director of NORML, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, who was to testify about Mr. Rosenthal’s longstanding commitment to legal reform; Fred Gardner, formerly of the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, who was to testify about the city sanctioning of marijuana dispensaries and Mr. Rosenthal’s involvement in it; and Dr. Michael Alcalay, M.D. the medical director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Collective, who was to testify about Mr. Rosenthal’s commitment to family life and family values.In a separate matter, the defense’s final effort to get a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intercede in the trial was rejected late last night. Defense attorneys had sought to force Judge Breyer to allow them the chance to present evidence that would reveal that at least one DEA supervising agent had said that the federal government would not pursue prosecutions in areas where the local governments were allowing medical distribution. Such testimony would indicate that Mr. Rosenthal had been the victim of a form of entrapment. Judge Breyer has already ruled that the jury will not be able to hear any such testimony.Trial resumes on Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Courtroom of Justice Charles Breyer, 19th Floor, 450 Golden Gate, San Francisco, CaliforniaFor previous days' trial updates, press releases, or information on what you can do to help in the federal trial of Ed Rosenthal, visit: http://www.green-aid.comDale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml igc.org2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
California NORML
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Comment #2 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on January 28, 2003 at 23:29:04 PT
145 years and counting
 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.              Frederick Douglass, August 4, 1857
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on January 28, 2003 at 15:03:33 PT
You won't see......
this quote in the mainstream media:''This is the federal government at war with its own citizens and I like to think that years from now we will look back on this as a dark chapter in our nation's history,'' said California State Assemblymember Mark Leno. ''The thought of a man like Ed Rosenthal being threatened with twenty years of imprisonment is an outrage. The man is not a criminal.'' This trial is fascinating - this is what it all comes down to.  What is that famous quote? The government will find out exactly how much tyranny the people will take, and that is exactly the amount they will impose. This is the line of demarcation. This is the front. They are trying to pull off a totally outrageous action here.  This is where the "checks and balances" in the system are supposed to kick in. Breyer has taken every possible step to thwart the inherent fairness of a jury trial by one's peers. Will the Bush cabal be able to pull it off? I haven't seen one word about this in my local paper. It's disgraceful. This guy should be up there with Rosa Parks. It just makes you realize the true power of the media. The whole civil rights revolution only happened because the media finally paid attention to the issue, after 80 or 90 years of ignoring the lynchings & Jim Crow laws.It will really be something if we can roll back the drug laws with the current media blackout. I will say a prayer to Jah for Mr. Rosenthal......
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