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| Guilty Plea in Medical Pot Case |
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Posted by FoM on April 24, 2002 at 08:40:03 PT By Staff Writer Source: Oakland Tribune 
An Oakland man arrested in February's federal raids of Bay Area marijuana sites pleaded guilty Tuesday to cultivation and money laundering charges that could put him in federal prison for life. But James Halloran, 61, might not serve a day behind bars. Under his plea bargain -- filed under seal but discussed in court Tuesday -- he might give prosecutors information useful in their case against others who were arrested Feb. 12, including well-known marijuana writer and activist Ed Rosenthal, 56, of Oakland. "Mr. Halloran is very ill -- that's why he pled today," Dennis J. Roberts, Halloran's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong. "He has hepatitis C." Roberts said this during a discussion of whether federal law requires Halloran, who has been free on $500,000 bail since the day after his arrest, be held in jail until sentencing. Armstrong said unless the government could recommend Tuesday that Halloran serve no prison time at all for his crimes, the law requires he be held in custody now. Assistant U.S. Attorney George L. Bevan Jr. said he couldn't make such a recommendation Tuesday because Halloran has not yet fulfilled his end of the plea bargain by providing information. Armstrong ordered Halloran placed in custody but stayed the order for one week so Bevan and Roberts can find precedents for keeping him out of jail. Outside court, Roberts said he's not yet sure Halloran will give prosecutors information; instead, he said, Halloran might qualify for a "safety valve" exception to the marijuana cultivation charge's mandatory 10-year minimum prison term. Such exceptions are for first-time offenders who didn't use violence or have a weapon; didn't cause death or serious injury; didn't organize, lead, manage or supervise others; and truthfully cooperated with prosecutors on their own case. Halloran, Rosenthal, Richard B. Watts and Kenneth Hayes were arrested Feb. 12 as Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided Rosenthal's home office and other Oakland sites, the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco, and Hayes' Petaluma home. Medical marijuana advocates say it was no coincidence the raids happened the same day DEA chief Asa Hutchinson was in San Francisco to speak about continuing the war on drugs. California law says medical use of marijuana is legal; federal law says it isn't. Court documents show the DEA claims Hayes, Watts and Rosenthal were involved not only in a medical marijuana dispensary, but in growing marijuana and selling it for profit to almost anyone, using state law as a smokescreen for illegal activity. "I don't think it really means anything to Ed," William Panzer, Rosenthal's attorney, said Tuesday of Halloran's plea bargain. "I don't think there is anything Jimmy Halloran could say to them about Ed that Ed isn't going to say about Ed." Panzer said Rosenthal believes his activities were legal under state law, and to whatever extent they were barred by federal law, "that law is unconstitutional. "I don't know how he (Halloran) could provide damaging information unless he lies," Panzer said. "Of course, the government considers 'You're helping sick people' as damaging information." Assistant Federal Defender Steven Kalar, representing Watts, 47, said Tuesday he hadn't known of Halloran's plea bargain and wouldn't comment on it. Hayes, 34 or 35, was in Canada during the Feb. 12 raids; he was arrested but released without bail by a Canadian judge. In pleading guilty Tuesday, Halloran acknowledged growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants in an East 12th Street commercial space rented with cash proceeds from marijuana sales. Bevan said DEA agents found 3,453 rooted marijuana plants and 805 unrooted "clone" plants at the secret greenhouse. When Armstrong asked Halloran to describe his crime in his own words, he said, "I'm charged with ... growing what I had considered to be medicinal marijuana permitted under Proposition 215 in the state of California." "That's not what you're charged with," the judge replied; Halloran then said he had cultivated marijuana in violation of federal law, and the judge accepted that. Some Bay Area officials have voiced indignant outrage about the DEA raids. The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night was to consider two resolutions presented by the city's Police Review Commission: One pledging not to cooperate with DEA raids of Bay Area medical marijuana facilities and another in support of Rosenthal. Note: Plea bargain may implicate Oakland activist Ed Rosenthal. Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA) Related Articles & Web Site: DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Club Indicted Rosenthal, Hayes, Watt, and Halloran 3 Nabbed in Pot Bust Post Bail Four Arrested in Connection with Pot Cultivation Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on April 24, 2002 at 12:08:42 PT |
| The story of Petr Yakir who was convicted of anti-SDoviet agitation along with dissident Viktor Krasin.
http://www.siue.edu/~aho/musov/deb/dchron1.html They named names and publicly repented on Soviet TV, saying all kinds of horrible things about the Soviet human rights movement and the people in it. It was horrible but what was behind it? Yakir had been raised in a Soviet prison camp for children of enemies of the state. He had the bad luck to be born to a family swept up in the Stalin purges. He had been brutalized for his entire childhood: physically, emotionally and sexually. He wasn't up to facing that again and he cracked. And the KGB was very good at hurting people emotionally, and picking out the people who could be hurt that way. Yakir had never recovered from the abuse he suffered in the childrens' camps. Really, he should not have chosen to become a dissident to begin with. It wasn't really a choice, though, and I'm sure everyone here can identify with that. Yakir lost all of his self-respect in the aftermath of his public denunciation of the movement, and he died a broken bitter friendless man. His whole life was a horrific tragedy with one moment of brightness that was snuffed out by the monolithic oppressive system he tried very briefly to go against. The same monolithic oppressive system Republicans used to understand was evil, but are now trying to recreate in America under the name of God instead of Lenin. Was Yakir to blame for his own weakness, or was the system to blame that crushed him into nothing? He was arrested for using a Xerox machine to copy the Soviet dissident's equivalent of CannabisNews.com. He was ratted out by a co-worker. Because of his cooperation, more people went to prison, good people who were standing up for good things. It's good to study the Soviet dissident movement if you're in the marijuana movement. The two movements have a lot in common. As bad as things feel here now, they really could be worse. We have those people who died for freedom, the people who laid down their precious lives on a battlefield somewhere, to create America, to thank for the fact that things here are NOT as bad as in the old Soviet system. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #3 posted by Jose Melendez on April 24, 2002 at 11:06:56 PT:
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| ...he had cultivated marijuana in violation of federal law Correction: he cultivated cannabis in violation of an unconstitutional law which specifically names the plant using a slang term because that law was enacted by people who stood to benefit financially and used perjury and leveraged existing racism to disenfranchise a targeted minority. Not uncoincidentally, enforcement of said unconstitutional federal law has been clearly and consistently been shown to be disproportionately applied to said minority groups. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #2 posted by el_toonces on April 24, 2002 at 10:58:00 PT:
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| ....this case is very disturbing for me. It alleges a conspiracy, and although I do believe most conpiracy law is kangaroo court law, conspiracy is a valid legal doctrine if confined to the parameters of the intent of the conspiracy. That a conspiracy charge would be used to prosecute people just trying to help is what is upsetting. Moreover, all of these people, including Mr. Halloran, are good folks and it is wrong for the feds to pressure them to lie of to tell anything LESS than the entire truth (i.e., to allege they were growing for any other reason but to try to help sick people). This is an acid test case for me. Whether I still love my country in part hangs in the balance. Peaace, El [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by Dr Ganj on April 24, 2002 at 10:00:38 PT |
| Halloran had the balls to grow more than 1000 plants, but doesn't have the balls to accept the consequences of a bust. So, he tries to rat out his partners. Makes me want to puke. What a loser. [ Post Comment ] |
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