cannabisnews.com: Butte County's Only MMJ Conviction Dismissed





Butte County's Only MMJ Conviction Dismissed
Posted by CN Staff on August 26, 2003 at 12:30:24 PT
By Terry Vau Dell - Staff Writer
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record 
Oroville -- A judge Monday tossed out the only guilty verdict to be returned so far in a Butte County medical-marijuana trial. A jury last spring had acquitted the defendant, Michael Kelly, 22, of Cherokee, of felony cultivation and sales, but convicted him of a misdemeanor drug possession count.Ruling the evidence did not support the verdict, Superior Court Judge Robert Glusman dismissed the drug possession conviction Monday. Ironically, Kelly had gone to court seeking a new trial on the misdemeanor charge, which could have carried up to six months in jail.
"I think it was the correct result legally and morally," said defense attorney Jodea Foster of Chico.The only other medical-marijuana case to go to trial in Butte County had ended in an acquittal two years ago.That case involved 21 marijuana plants seized from Cohasset resident Michael Rogers. Sheriff's officers had raided Kelly's rural Cherokee property in February 2001, seizing a relatively small amount of dried and processed marijuana from an outer shed. Both local men raised an identical defense under Proposition 215, the 1996 California initiative allowing pot to be smoked for medicinal purposes with a doctor's recommendation.At Kelly's trial, a Berkeley psychiatrist testified he had prescribed pot to help the Cherokee man alleviate an "obsessive compulsive disorder."But deputy district attorney Kristen Lucena called the medical marijuana recommendation "a sham" and a "cover" by the defendant to illegally sell the drug to others.In a strongly-worded response, Kelly's lawyer contended his client was being made a "sacrificial lamb ... just because they (prosecutors) disagree with this law and they want to decide who is sick and which doctor should recommend (pot)."Kelly's jury ultimately found he had the right to grow and smoke the drug medicinally.But they said afterwards a confusing legal instruction led them to convict the Cherokee man of the misdemeanor possession charge because he was found with more than an ounce of pot.In his legal brief requesting a new trial, Kelly's attorney had asserted the prosecution's own drug expert had largely conceded the amount of processed marijuana seized from Kelly's residence "fell within permissible limits for personal use."Glusman, who was appointed to the local bench last year by Gov. Gray Davis, threw out the misdemeanor drug conviction Monday, agreeing with the defense that the jury verdict was "contrary to the evidence." Complete Title: Butte County's Only Medical Marijuana Conviction Dismissed Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)Author: Terry Vau Dell - Staff WriterPublished: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Media News GroupContact: letters chicoer.comWebsite: http://www.chicoer.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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