Jury Conviction of 70yr Old Woman

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MIway

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This is happening in Oakland Country...







An assistant prosecutor told jurors this morning to follow the law and not use sympathy when weighing the fate of a 70-year-old woman facing a drug charge.

Should this 70-year-old woman be sent to prison? What should be done with the medical marijuana law as well as the marijuana and drug laws in general? Comment below.

In the end, the jury heeded that advice and decided to convict Barbara Agro as charged. She faces sentencing July 13 on one count of delivery/manufacture of marijuana, a 4-year felony.

Click here to read more about this case.

The former Lake Orion police dispatcher worked as a receptionist at a medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale called Clinical Relief. When the facility was raided on Aug. 25, 2010, Agro told deputies that she had marijuana plants growing at her house. Deputies found 19 marijuana plants and other items during a search of her Lake Orion home.

“You must hold the defendant accountable for her actions,” said Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand during her closing argument.

Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota said Agro used the substance for medical reasons.

“In this case here, we have a person who was growing medicine for herself,” Sabbota said.

Sabbota referenced old laws, such as those surrounding prohibition and a law that once made it a crime to harbor a runaway slave. In his opening statement yesterday, he told jurors that laws sometimes need to be changed.

Hand pointed out that Sabbota did not contest any elements of the charged crime.
 
C

CAPO

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Below is an article from The Metro Times and it will answer many questions for you as to why the judge ruled that Mrs. Agro could NOT use the medical marijuana defense. I think Oakland County voters need to take a close look at who they are putting in office.


Oakland County continues to be one of the toughest battlefronts around medical marijuana in the state. There seem to be more high-profile cases around the issue there because County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper and County Sheriff Mike Bouchard have decided to take on medical marijuana in a very high-profile manner. But maybe they're just taking cues from the head guy. Last week, during a Michigan Town Hall Meeting in Troy, sponsored by the Oakland Press and cablecast on CMNtv, County Executive L. Brooks Patterson appeared via video saying, "That medical marijuana law is the worst piece of legislation I've ever seen."

That doesn't sound like someone who wants to make things any easier on medical marijuana patients than he has to — which brings us to the case of Barb Agro.

Agro is a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient and caregiver with debilitating arthritis and diabetes. She worked as a 911 operator for the city of Lake Orion for 38 years. She also faces charges and possible jail time for growing marijuana — but the words medical marijuana, medicine, patient and caregiver cannot be used in her defense. Why? Here are Agro's own words from an article she wrote for the Midwest Cultivator, an Ann Arbor-based medical marijuana publication:

In June of 2010, after receiving our recommendations from a physician, we began to grow 20 medical marijuana plants in the basement of our home. It is important to note that neither my husband nor I actually smoked marijuana; rather we chose to consume it as medibles, as we both found it had longer pain-relieving results.

On Aug. 25, 2010, our home, along with multiple others, including both of my sons' homes, also medical marijuana patients, was raided by masked gun-wielding officers from Oakland County Michigan's Narcotic Enforcement Task Force. In this raid our home was torn into pieces. Mattresses ripped apart, clothing, cabinets emptied, plants ripped from their pots and dirt thrown across rooms and even into our bed. Approximately $11,270 dollars was taken from our home, money that had been saved and withdrawn to purchase a vehicle. My two sons' homes were raided at the same time ...

A neighbor of my son was brave enough to leave the scene and drive to my home where he informed my husband of the raid. In his frenzied haste, my husband grabbed his car keys, leaving his wallet and our home unlocked and unsecured. After arriving to my son's residence and checking on his daughter-in-law and grandchildren to ensure they were protected he returned back home to find his house raided by the same narcotic enforcement detail.

Because the door to their home was unlocked when police arrived, prosecutors say that Barb Agro was not in compliance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which requires that all growing facilities be inside a "locked enclosed space." Sal, her husband of 45 years, doesn't have to worry about it. He died from a heart attack at age 67 about a week after the raids.

"Our belief is that it was due to the stress from watching his wife and kids being wrongly prosecuted by an overzealous prosecutor and sheriff," wrote Agro.

Police don't seem inclined to cut her any slack. The Agros also worked at the Clinical Relief medical marijuana facility in Ferndale that was busted earlier the same day her home was raided. That was probably what led to the raids that night. Their son Nick Agro, of Lake Orion, is a co-owner of Clinical Relief. In all 16 people were charged from the day's raids including those associated with Herbal Remedies and Everybody's Cafe in Waterford Township.

"She worked the front desk [at Clinical Relief] to make sure nobody nefarious got through, to make sure they were properly credentialed," says her son Nick Agro.

Nick has his own problems. He says that police didn't find anything at his home the night of the raid and that he never personally sold anything at Clinical Relief.

"I've been charged with conspiracy to manufacture an analog substance, brownies made with chemical THC," says Nick. "They're saying that marijuana butter used to make marijuana brownies is in a category like crack cocaine. There was nothing at my house so they're trying to tie me to Clinical Relief because I'm a chef."

Agro is a partner in a Denver, Colo., catering company, although he had relocated back to Michigan before last August's raids. An analog drug, also known as a designer drug, is one that is made to get around existing drug laws yet create effects similar to illegal drugs. Agro says he expects his charges to be dropped, possibly as early as this week.

The charges against Barb stemming from the raid at her home are moving through the court faster than the charges related to Clinical Relief. Since she is forbidden any mention of medical marijuana in her defense, activists have taken the tactic of flooding court entrances with people wearing clothing such as T-shirts with medical marijuana slogans on them in order to get the message across. They tell people entering the building the same thing. They did this on April 27, at the Oakland County Municipal Court in Pontiac, for Barb's hearing. The judge then postponed the hearing until May 9. There is no indication that the presence of activists had anything to do with the postponement, but they intend to keep it up in support of Agro and others.

After Agro's hearing was postponed, activists went to another courtroom where attorney Matt Abel was defending in another medical marijuana case. The judge made the activists remove their T-shirts and move to another area in the courtroom during a break in the trial.

"We have three or four other cases in Oakland County where judges have ruled that we can't use a medical marijuana defense," says Abel. "They all need to be corrected, and they're wasting a lot of taxpayer money in the meantime."

That's where things stand right now. If you are a medical marijuana patient in Michigan right now (especially in Oakland County) take pains to stay in compliance with the law, because if you are not it may disqualify a medical marijuana defense. It seems that law enforcement is looking to charge patients and caregivers for any small deviation from the law — one too many plants, a gram over the legal amount.

Barb Agro has run into the tactic with terrifying results.

"I don't know how they're able to circumnavigate the law. ... They're scaring people out of the medical marijuana program with the way they're prosecuting these cases. People are intimidated across the state. Oakland County is the battleground. ... There's no defense these patients can put up. Anything alluding to medical marijuana is being suppressed by prosecutors," Agro says, adding that his mother isn't doing well. "I'll be honest with you. She lost her partner, my father. She's broken mentally and physically. These prosecutors don't care what they're doing. "I think they know exactly what they're doing. "
 
IPlay4Keepz

IPlay4Keepz

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I personally don't like dispensaries and their owners for the simple reason that they will eventually seek and pay for legislation that further erodes our individual rights as caregivers for a larger piece of the pie.
What i want to know is... How the f*ck are these fascist pigs allowed to print fake patient cards and id's to fool patients into selling them meds?!?! That is just fkn insane!!
So if I owned a liquor store and some punk kid comes in with a legit looking fake id for which i sell him liquor... Am i criminally liable for providing alcohol to a minor when i was deceived into doing so?
 
IPlay4Keepz

IPlay4Keepz

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So its the sellers responsibility to verify that the id is real even if it looks real and the minor looks of age? Now pray tell... How in bloody hell am i supposed to do that? And am i supposed to just neglect my waiting customers in the course of daily business to verify if some schmuck is trying to fool me?
Is there a way to verify peoples patient cards against a registry or something? If the card looks real and they have a fake id to back the fake patient card... How do i verify the card is the real deal? Excuse me for all the questions, but this shit is freaky considering the fact that i thought medical records are private -Keepz
 
G

gooey

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Yeah i dont think there is a simple awsner to your q keepz...the onus is on the shops, motherlode is correct, however as long as you are not a shop owner i cant see how you would ever come into this situation as long as your card is real, who cares? the real shame is whats happend to this familey, the cost of prohibition is clearly more than the cost of the drug yet another example...it clearly is a known risk to be in the disp business right now but, this is clearly over zelous, my opnly 2 cents would be stay away form oakland county...peace n puffs
 
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517kush

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i feel bad for everyone involved and my prayers go out to all families involved... i think caregivers/patients just need to follow ALL the rules to be in complience. an unlocked door (even by accident) makes the facility unsecured .Tha being said. if there is someone who courts should cut some slack its a 70 yr old. woman... Im sure there is quite a bit more to the story,,, it looks to me like this whole thing was PERSONAL.
 
HeLLMuTT

HeLLMuTT

Thinks of Stinks
Supporter
948
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it looks to me like this whole thing was PERSONAL.

To the morons of LE. MMJ seems to be very personal to most of them. Just for existing. I'll tell you 1st hand LE will find a way if they just don't like you... Fuckers

The woman to lose her partner from the blatant stress is heartbreaking...



Schedule 3 here we come!
 
altitudefarmer

altitudefarmer

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Freedumb!!!!!!!!

thgfree.jpg

Please do whatever you can.
 
M

MIway

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Thing that I cannot wrap my head around is how a judge & prosecutor can silence a defendant from speaking on their own behalf/defense.

Should the judge have said, no MMj defense... don't see why the defendant wouldn't ever speak to that end on stand... despite what the judge has ordered. It is you own damn defense and I thought each person could speak in their own defense...???


She was a medical patient... on stand, would think to lead with that... again, despite the judge. Without mention to this, there is no defense on the books... which basically means a conviction.

If she opened up, guilty of what? Contempt of court??? So that might be jail, but let the damn judge try to lock her up for 4 years for that. I mean now, they have a 'jury conviction'...???

What were her lawyers thinking to put up with this? What was she thinking to not ever say a word? The whole situation up there reads like a bad bedtime story... like it isn't real.
 
S

swisscheese

Guest
Just so everyone knows if you're ever called to jury for a mmj case you can choose not to hear it and feel free to inform the rest of the jurors as well. Refuse to hear cases related to mj. I know they must feel like big tough guys locking a 70 year old woman in jail.
 
QuarterbackMo

QuarterbackMo

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And the police wonder why people are out here dumping ak47s on them whenever they come around... Come in Wayne county and try that shit...
 
Z

Zombee

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Sure, I feel bad, but the MI law is so vague where it comes to dispensaries and the like, I play it safe, grow for myself and the patients I hold PHYSICAL cards for, and I do not exceed the state defined limits.

Stay within the confines CLEARLY listed in the law, and you'll have no problems. Oh, and be fucking discreet.
 
S

Stoner Smurf

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Just so everyone knows if you're ever called to jury for a mmj case you can choose not to hear it and feel free to inform the rest of the jurors as well. Refuse to hear cases related to mj. I know they must feel like big tough guys locking a 70 year old woman in jail.

That's kinda silly when you could instead act very neutral on mmj, and when you get placed on the jury vote not guilty. Wait everyone else out, they will either come around to your way of thinking and vote not guilty just to go home, or you'll have a mistrial. Let these douche bag judges and prosecutors know that we the jurors won't throw these people in jail.
 
K

kripplecreek

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That's kinda silly when you could instead act very neutral on mmj, and when you get placed on the jury vote not guilty. Wait everyone else out, they will either come around to your way of thinking and vote not guilty just to go home, or you'll have a mistrial. Let these douche bag judges and prosecutors know that we the jurors won't throw these people in jail.

Agree with above and this is just...so messed up how can anyone put someone in jail who is hurting like that she said she EATS it for f sakes I EAT it when I can afford to and it takes up a TON of my stuff. She has the same problem takes a lot more for them especially with their problems to feel relief I HATE READING SHIT LIKE THIS wtf happened to humanity
 
aintnolove

aintnolove

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What good is it to send a 70 year old woman to prison slap her on the wrist. I am sure there are facts I am unaware of but making an example of the elderly lets get real.
 

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