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Pot Guru Ed Rosenthal Vindicated: Charges Tossed

By Jeralyn, Section Court Decisions
Posted on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 04:44:36 PM EST
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Kudos to marijuna advocate Ed Rosenthal. A federal judge in California today threw out the charges against him, agreeing they were the result of a vindictive prosecution:

A federal judge threw out criminal charges today against an Oakland man accused of growing medical marijuana, ruling that authorities had vindictively prosecuted him because of remarks he made after he successfully appealed an earlier conviction.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco dismissed charges of tax evasion and money laundering against Ed Rosenthal, an author and activist who has been dubbed the "Guru of Ganja."

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    Pot Guru Ed Rosenthal Vindicated: Charges Tossed | 7 comments (7 topical)

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    Horay for Ed!!! (none / 0) (#1)
    by kdog on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 04:53:43 PM EST
    Hopefully the govt. will finally leave this man alone.

    Vindictive (none / 0) (#2)
    by Ben Masel on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 05:15:23 PM EST
    Doubtful. 20 years ago, the DEA was telling all the defendants in Operation Greenmerchant they'd let them go "if you can get us the Guru." Greenmerchant was a series of simultaneous raids on shops selling exotic gardening supplies. Most of the cases settled out for forfietures.

    Parent
    Ah.... (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 05:20:51 PM EST
    an extortion racket, in other words.

    Say no more.

    Parent

    It's probably bad reporting ... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Sailor on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 05:17:28 PM EST
    ... but it seems that this:
    Last year, Rosenthal, 62, successfully appealed his earlier conviction on the drug charges because of misconduct by a juror who consulted an attorney on how to decide the case.
    Federal prosecutors indicted the "Guru of Ganja" again in October over the same marijuana operation, adding four counts of hiding money and five counts of filing false tax returns.
    is double jeopardy, and then the feds threw in more charges.

    Note name of judge - brother of Justice Breyer (none / 0) (#5)
    by teacherken on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 06:30:16 PM EST
    which means if this were to get to SCOTUS  Steve Breyer would recuse himself, as he has done in 3 case to date that originated in his brother's court,one of which was, ironically, Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative.

    Too bad (none / 0) (#6)
    by Maggie Mae on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 07:15:17 PM EST
    the news for Angel Raich wasn't as good.  Grrrrr.  

    Something has got to give on this issue!

    Hallelujah. (none / 0) (#7)
    by kindness on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 09:31:36 PM EST
    Now get out there and as Bob marley said

    "Lively up yourself".

    Pot Guru Ed Rosenthal Vindicated: Charges Tossed | 7 comments (7 topical)

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