5 local marijuana cases dismissed after ruling

Beth LeBlanc / Lansing State Journal

Ginnifer Hency and her lawyer, Michael Komorn, got the news early Wednesday morning that the marijuana case against her was dropped, and her property seized through civil forfeiture would be returned.

The Kimball Township woman’s case is one of at least five marijuana cases in St. Clair County that will be dismissed after a state Supreme Court decision last week.

“I’m elated that this part is over,” Hency said. “It’s been a long year.”

St. Clair County Prosecutor Michael Wendling said about 18 cases were on hold while prosecution and defense waited on the Supreme Court decision.

“We reevaluated the files that we had pending and at least five were no longer viable in light of the Supreme Court decision,” Wendling said.

“I think that’s an analysis that prosecutors across the state are undertaking.”

The Michigan Supreme Court ruling last week — its ninth medical marijuana ruling since voters approved the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008 — clarified when caregivers and users can use their medical marijuana certification as a defense or immunity if charged with a marijuana-related crime.

“We would have to have specific evidence on those items in order to overcome that burden now that we did not have to show before,” Wendling said.

“Several of those cases the evidence isn’t there to do that.”

Wendling said any unresolved civil forfeiture cases connected to those five dismissed cases also will be dismissed, and items seized will be returned.

The four other marijuana cases dismissed include ones against Austin Ray, Ryan Jackson, Thomas Cook and Kevin Lindke, Wendling said.

Komorn said Hency was arrested and her home raided in July 2014. The medical marijuana caregiver was charged in December 2014 with possession with intent to deliver marijuana.

According to appeal documents from the prosecution, Hency was charged after she allegedly told a Drug Task Force member she had six ounces of marijuana in a locked bag that she intended to exchange for a different strain with another caregiver and give the marijuana to her patients.

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Her case was dismissed by visiting District Judge David Nicholson in May after Nicholson found that no crime had occurred after a preliminary examination.

The prosecutor’s office appealed Nicholson’s decision in circuit court. Oral arguments on the appeal were supposed to be heard by Circuit Judge Michael West Wednesday.

“We still feel that that appeal is justified because it was on a different issue,” Wendling said. “But, at the end of the day, if we win that appeal and that case gets refiled, we still have that Supreme Court decision to deal with.”

Komorn said he, co-counsel Shyler Engel and Hency were happy with the dismissal.

“But that does not eliminate the horror of what they’ve had to deal with the last year,” Komorn said.

“It didn’t come easy. We’ve had to fight for a year.”

Komorn said Hency’s family was devastated by the July 2014 raid on their home and Hency has had trouble finding employment because of the pending narcotics charge.

“We’re interested in pursuing damages,” Komorn said.

“This shouldn’t have happened. There shouldn’t have been criminal charges and there certainly shouldn’t have been a forfeiture.”

Hency said authorities seized several items, including a Chevy Impala, two iPhones, an iPad and a ladder, when they raided her home in 2014.

Hency’s case gained national attention when she said the Drug Task Force also seized a sex toy.

Sheriff Tim Donnellon said that was investigated and was unfounded.

“It’s absolutely not true,” Donnellon said. “There’s no reason for us to do any such thing, it never happened.”

The sex toy wasn’t listed on the forfeiture seizure list.

Hency said she appreciated the prosecutor’s decision to dismiss the case “in the interest of justice.” But she said she feels her case isn’t completely finished.

“When I get my stuff back I will consider it over,” Hency said. “There are a whole lot of other cases in St. Clair County that I hope they revisit in light of the (Supreme Court) decision.”

Amsdills want marijuana charges dismissed

Beth LeBlanc

Lansing State Journal

Five people charged with marijuana crimes in 2012 want their cases dismissed because they allegedly were led to believe their medical marijuana facilities were legal by government or law enforcement officials.

Demonstrators hold hands as they walk the sidewalk Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, wearing Blue Water Compassion Center T-shirts.

The argument — entrapment by estoppel — is the same defense that led to the dismissal of marijuana charges against a Port Huron Township couple, Dale and Annette Shattuck, in February.

James, Debra and Amanda Amsdill and Mark and Terra Sochacki were arrested in 2011 following an investigation by the Michigan State Police into three Blue Water Compassion Center marijuana dispensaries in Sanilac, Tuscola and St. Clair counties.

Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office charged the Amsdills with three counts, including conducting a criminal enterprise, for patient-to-patient sales of marijuana through the dispensary. The Sochackis were charged with delivery of marijuana.

The case was dismissed by Circuit Judge Cynthia Lane in 2013, but was remanded back to her court by the Court of Appeals in December 2014.

The briefs submitted last week asking Lane to dismiss the charges summarize testimony and arguments made during a 4-day hearing in late January. Lane will rule on the motions before the five defendants proceed to trial.

The briefs filed by the group’s four lawyers — Matt Newburg, Neil Rockind, Paul Tylenda, and Michael Komorn — argue the Amsdills and Sochackis trusted the government assurances they received for the Blue Water Compassion Centers.

According to the motions, the Amsdills were in regular communication with the then director of the Sanilac Drug Task Force, William Gray, prior to the raids on their facilities. The Amsdills testified Gray had checked the validity of patients’ medical marijuana cards for the Amsdills, and the Amsdills even had Gray’s card at the front desk of each compassion center in case they ran into trouble.

In Kimball Township, the Amsdills said they operated under a township ordinance that authorized the dispensary — an ordinance they helped to draft.

“Mrs. Amsdill testified that she relied on this ordinance, her reliance was reasonable given the number of people — and their level of authority, that approved it and operated the business that way,” Debra Amsdill’s motion reads.

“Her confidence in the legality of her business only grew as she and her husband became acquainted with Bill Gray, the (former) director of the Sanilac County Drug Task Force.”

At the hearing in late January, Gray allegedly denied telling the Amsdills that patient-to-patient sales were legal. The brief said Gray testified he spoke with the Amsdills as a police officer investigating suspected criminal activity.

The briefs note Gray was quoted in the Sanilac County News as stating at a public meeting that he was “one hundred percent confident that they were not selling to anyone without a medical marijuana card.”

A Dec. 29, 2011 Times Herald article contains a similar quote from Gray. The article said Debra Amsdill and Gray had a “working relationship” and she turned to him with questions about the law.

In the December 2011 Times Herald article, Gray said he didn’t believe the raids would produce enough evidence to mount a case against the compassion centers. “We wanted nothing to do with it,” Gray said.

In a brief filed on behalf of James Amsdill, Rockind said the discrepancy between Gray’s actions prior to the raid and his testimony months after undermines his credibility.

“There is no credibility ‘contest’ here, however much the State will attempt to create one,” the brief reads. “When comparing the statements of Gray and the defendants, there would be a better ‘contest’ in a swimming race between Michael Phelps and Michael Moore.”

A response to the briefs from the Attorney General’s office said the Amsdills and Sochackis changing and conflicting statements at an evidentiary hearing in late January “strains credulity.”

Prosecutors maintain Gray never confirmed the legality of the dispensaries, and that the Amsdills had been warned about the questionable legality of selling marijuana to anyone with a card.

“In fact, the documents show that Director Bill Gray warned (Blue Water Compassion Center) and others that owning dispensaries that sold marijuana could create legal problems,” the state’s response reads.

“The Kimball Township ordinance never authorized patient to patient sale and (Supervisor) Don Petro never told defendants in Tuscola County that patient to patient sales were legal.”

Prosecutors said the Amsdills and Sochackis continued to operate the compassion centers even after the raid, perhaps “one of the most telling examples of how defendants did not reasonably rely, in good faith on claimed law enforcement statements.”

Lawyers for the Sochackis and Amanda Amsdill also filed motions for dismissal based on general entrapment. The motions argue the Sochackis and Amanda Amsdill were entrapped by an undercover agent who bought marijuana with fake medical marijuana documents.

The five defendants also argue charges should be dismissed because they are protected as medical marijuana patients under sections four and eight of the medical marijuana law. The sections generally allow for the dismissal of a case, or the use of a medical marijuana defense, if defendants can prove they had legitimate medical marijuana certification.

The Supreme Court’s clarification of sections four and eight of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act led the St. Clair County Prosecutor’s office to drop charges against a Kimball Township woman, Ginnifer Hency, and a few other medical marijuana defendants in 2015.

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (810) 989-6259 or eleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @THBethLeBlanc.

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