cannabisnews.com: Letter from B.E. Smith's Wife! Letter from B.E. Smith's Wife! Posted by FoM on May 24, 1999 at 19:33:19 PT This is an E-mail from Mary, B.E. Smith's Wife! Source: McWilliams.com Dear Friends:This is Mary Smith, BE's wife. The court room scene for his medicinal marijuana trial was very hard for everyone involved, except of course the judge, and prosecutor. They would not let him use proposition 215 as a defense. In fact, the only defense they would allow at all was some character witnesses.And because BE had people like David Michels, (SanFrancisco Lawyer) and another lawyer named Nicole, a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, a person he had been designated as a care giver from LA, (Sister Somya), Martin Lederer, Woody Harrelson, even one of the cops that was in on the bust and the defense had subphoenaed gave BE a good character reference (whether he intended to or not it came out that way). And because BE's character references were so good, there were 4 area's in character reference the defense could use, but because he was getting such good references, the judge even took out two of those, so what he had left were two things on character references they would let the defense use. They shut down everything the defense tried to do, and allowed everything the prosecution wanted. So of course my husband was found guilty.He is in Sacramento County Jail.ADDRESS: BE SMITHXref: 3577809 Floor 4E Pod: 3 Cell 14B651 I Street (as in eye Street)Sacramento, Ca. 95841I don't know how many of you that I know, that this message is going out to, but I would like to say this. I have never been in my husbands corner 100% where this pot issue has been concerned. I do believe sick people should be allowed to have it, but I have never been active in supporting it, other than I voted for it. But after seeing the injustice done to my husband through the federal court in Sacra-mento, to me, the issue isn't even the marijuana issue any more, its an issue of justice, and justice was not done in this case. As Woody Harrelson said; not only was justice blindfolded, she was raped, mutilated, abused, and I can't remember all his exact words but he said it truly! I am a Christian, and I would say a pretty tradional christian, so you can imagine how some of my thoughts went on the subject of marijuanna. And many times my husband tried to explain to me about the war on drugs, and I have to confess most of the time I never got the message he was trying to get through to me. But let me tell you it got through to me in Sacramento this last week. What my husband did, he did not just for himself but for people like Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams, and he feels he failed them. But he didn't the federal government knew they were going to railroad him straight into jail. I would like to also add, that before the trial my husband was offered a plea bargain. They told him if he would plead guilty, he wouldn't get any jail time, and his response was, NO COMPROMISE! How could he plead guilty to something that with all of his studying and his lawyers, through federal and state statutes, and regulations, he was excepted by those laws. How could he plead guilty to something that legally he could and did do? Some have already said he should have plea bargained but how could that have helped those that were coming behind him? It wouldn't have, and he cares very much for sick and dying people, as well as the healthy. He cares very much for his country and for all of you out there. He is not perfect, I would never suggest that in any way, he makes mistakes like all the rest of us, but I can tell you from living with him, he loves you people, and he wanted to walk point for you.He has never been in any of this for the money, and for those of you who know us well you know how true that is! Because we have never had any. Smile. He gave his time and energy away to I do not know how many people not just with his traffic classes, but to countless people that called us on the phone, and alot of them were collect calls. His patience with it sometimes drove me nuts, I would say, can't we have a life of our own? Or why don't you go to work like a normal person instead of sitting in the house working on law stuff, and talking to people on the phone? But his heart was so in it, it was like to him he had no choice. It was all he could do. And in my impatience, worry of the rent getting paid on time, I did not have much compassion or patience with my husband. But I see it now folks, and I am willing to take over where he left off. Please write him.Flood him with letters of love and encouragement, and God bless you for loving and caring for him.Those of you who believe in praying, please pray for him. We love you all,Mary Gale Smith Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 25, 1999 at 14:08:42 PT Thanks Pat! Hello Pat!My motto is if first you don't succeed try! try! again! You got it! I'll check out the link to the ALLHERB.com thread and thanks! Watch out for those nasty gremlins that live inside our browsers! LOL!Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Pat on May 25, 1999 at 13:45:53 PT Let's try that URL once more, please.... Hi Guys, sorry, but I don't know why, but I get a "404 error: URL not found" with the URL I just left. It looks like it should work, to my eyes. Anyway, here is a "copy and paste" version, of the URL in question. Thanks. LoL, I see the error I made. Well, slowly, I am getting used to the URLs at this web site. Again, sorry, and... Keep on Keepin' On, Guys!http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread1445.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Pat on May 25, 1999 at 13:37:08 PT Here's a Correction, to the CannabisNews Thread... ... I just left, in the comment, below.The thread I tried to leave a message in earlier this morning is the following thread, (not this thread. I had the address in my previous comment, here, all messed up....)http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread/1445.shtmlSorry for the confusion. Pat. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Pat on May 25, 1999 at 13:28:01 PT Hi FoM, Rainbow, Mary Gale & BE Smith, Peter McW.> >>>... Peter McWilliams, etc.Thank you Peter, for sending along Mary Gale Smith's sad letter about her husband being railroaded in a travesty of injustice - into a ten year inprisonment.... Thank you, FoM, for posting Mary Gale Smith's and Peter McWilliams' letters. And, thank you, Rainbow, for your poignant, heart-felt, yet sad post. I appreciate it, guys. I wanted to post a comment here is this thread, yesterday, but was too upset to do so, at the time. ... Instead, I tried to post a comment in the thread at: http://www.news/thread/1444.shtml , I believe. Unfortunately, the Windows 95 software crashed, while I was trying to make that post. Now, today, I could not get to this site, or the http://www.cannabis.com site, etc., or my email box, using the MSIE browser. [I am using the browser that comes with AOL to post this now.] ... I will try to fetch my comment, for the other thread here, and post it soon. ....Now, guys, I know this is not specifically about the tragic miscarriage of [in-] "justice" that BE Smith has just experienced, but it concerns the same general topic. Here is an article about the "legal" theft of US citizens' property and lives, by the US government. It is at the following URL address.Thanks, Pat.http://www.spinnaker.com/VILA/bbs-docs/docs/morerico.txt SEIZURES OF PROPERTY UNDER DRUG FORFEITURE LAWSby Gary SteinwegUnder the guise of the "war on drugs", innocent Americans are losing their lives, liberty, and Constitutional rights at an alarming rate. Under recently-instituted state and federal forfeiture laws, government agencies may seize property if a judge (not a jury) determines that said property is associated with drugs. Doesn't matter how. The government does not have to charge the owner with a crime to take his/her property.For example, a charter/instructor pilot was chartered to fly an individual with a briefcase from point A to point B. When the airplane landed, it was surrounded by federal and local officers. Turns out the passenger was a suspected drug dealer, and his briefcase was full of money. Since drug dealers always seem to carry lots of money in briefcases, the money was seized AND SO WAS THE INNOCENT INSTRUCTOR'S AIRPLANE. The pilot had never met the passenger before and had no idea what was in the briefcase. He was never charged with anything, but he is now bankrupt and his means of livelihood has been STOLEN from him. This is but one example of similar incidents being repeated at an ever-increasing rate across the country, and it gets worse...A 61-year-old reclusive millionnaire, Donald Scott, refused to sell his 200-acre Malibu Canyon ranch to the government as part of an expansion to an adjacent federal recreation area. It wasn't long before 24 government agents stormed his home and shot him dead when he attempted to investigate the commotion with a gun in his hand. (He had refused on several occasions to sell his property to the state. When he was raided, he was shot to death when he responded to his wife's screams. He had just had eye surgery and could not see very well, but he started to lower his gun when officers at a distance identified themselves and told him to drop the gun. It is at this time that he was shot.) Their probable cause? An air surveillance expert reported seeing marijuana plants growing in pots on his property, and his younger wife was observed spending a lot of his inherited fortune. No drugs were found.Why were he and his wife under surveillance in the first place?Do I think the raiding officers went there hoping to seize his property? Absolutely. It's free and easy money for government agents. (The ranch was worth over 5 million dollars. After a 5-month investigation by Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury, it was found that the raid had no legal justification. His evidence includes a copy of the pre-raid briefing which contained local area property value appraisals and the key finding that the Deputy securing the search warrant used FALSE information to do so, then led the multi-agency assault team to the isolated ranch in hopes of finding drugs.) Officers participating in such confiscations receive a lot of "brownie points." Do I think the raiding officers were part of an orchestrated plot? Probably not. They were just doing what they like to do (assaults on innocent people like the BATF does), and were following orders from higher up.I was astounded when I first heard of property being confiscated PRIOR TO and WITHOUT a trial by jury. "Operation Zero Tolerance," a program enacted in the San Diego area, was my first hint of this tyrannical change in our government's behavior. Honest and law-abiding fishing boat operators had their vessels confiscated because one of their crew had a marijuana cigarette. The actual offenders were only fined $100 and given suspended sentences. But the innocent fishing vessel owners' lives were disastrously disrupted. The motive is clear for anyone to see. Confiscated property is worth a lot of money, especially at those "seized property auctions" held all across the country.We're on the verge of losing more of our Constitutional rights. Most of you don't care now, nor will you care until after it happens to you.There are three basic rights that the War on Drugs violates: 1. The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. 2. Property may not be confiscated without due process. 3. The accused is entitled to a trial by jury.A few years ago, I cheered each time I heard of a drug trafficker having all his assets seized. Then I started hearing about innocent people - people in no way involved with illegal activity - having their assets seized because of some vague association with drugs. Besides the above examples, there are incidents in which parents' cars were seized because of their child's friend having a marijuana cigarette in his possession, and where rented houses have been seized because the tenant was involved with drugs (owner was unaware).Since these violations of the Constitution went into effect in the mid-1980s (because of Republicans and Democrats), there has been an increase in the number of horror stories every year. At first, drug enforcement agencies were somewhat cautious. However, they quickly discovered that whereas other government agencies have to live within a budget allocation, seizing cash and property provided an unlimited source of additional funds. The drug enforcement agencies have gotten into such a feeding frenzy that they are starting to kill a lot of innocent people as they mount their raids on wrong addresses. Their only concern when this happens is how to cover it up. Many innocent Americans have been forced into bankrupcy because of civil court expenses incurred while fighting the government agencies.The Bill of Rights was included in the Constitution to prevent the government from becoming all-powerful. Our founding fathers recognized that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.I am now concluding that the War on Drugs is a sham with the real objective of unlimited government power and the elimination of our rights. The War on Drugs has created crime where no crime should exist. The War on Drugs has created firearm violence where no violence should exist. If gun control is enacted, millions of citizens will become instant criminals, and for refusing to turn in their weapons, their property too will be seized - unless we prevent such gun control from being enacted.Remember when you vote in elections that only Libertarians are consistently against unlawful seizures of property. ------------------------- THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY Info: 1-800-682-1776 ------------------------- [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on May 25, 1999 at 11:37:35 PT This Must Stop! Hello Rainbow, You took the words right out of my mouth. This is America! The country I once loved! I still love my country but not the way it is anymore. That's why we can't turn back or give up because all this must stop or the old world won't be around much longer! I am going to write to Mary and send this thread so feel free you or anyone to add more comments and know she will appreciate it!Peace not WoDs,FoM!PS: I don't know her but I just know she'll appreciate it! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Rainbow on May 25, 1999 at 10:26:21 PT: Tears Yes this Guy has tears. I cry because one human has done something like this to another human. How can we live with this type of treatment of one human to another human.My tack is to send e-mail to the staff of Barry and ask them to search their hearts and thought and jump ship. There are plenty of jobs out there and if their morals are compromised they should fire their boss and find a better job.How can people hurt people. I just do not understand this picture. The judge and prosecutors ought to get a set of morals and values and live them.There is a Christian adage Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is really hard to live by and the evidence of our government officials show us they are not christian. How can they be if they take responsibility for hurt.I get so depressed at what the government does. I like and support the ideals of our form of governemnt but I can not support the people who run it.Rainbow [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by BigAb on May 25, 1999 at 04:22:47 PT: Yo' Woody !!! Man, I'm with Woody !! If this was such a FAIR and ABOVE BOARD trial then why only ONE version of the truth ?This is a disgrace ... Had to rail-road the man to get a conviction .... the jury should have at least hung !!!Long Gone Alby [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 24, 1999 at 19:46:11 PT Letter from B.E. Smith's Wife! Above letter is an e-mail from Peter McWilliams!"Peter McWilliams" Letter from B.E. Smith's Wife!This is an e-mail from Mary, B.E. Smith's wife. If this doesn't tear your heart out, nothing will. In addition to writing to B.E., which I strongly encourage, please drop a line of encouragement to his wife at: besmith snowcrest.netThis woman is facing the next ten years without her husband.Take care, Peter [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: