Pubdate: Tue, 13 Feb 2007
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2007 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.madison.com/tct/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Mike Miller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MARIJUANA CASE LIGHTS UP COURT

Pro-Pot Group Plans Protests At Hearing

A minor marijuana charge could generate some heat in the Dane County 
courthouse Wednesday as Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler rules on 
a motion in which the prosecution and defense seemed to have switched sides.

The prosecution has moved to dismiss without prejudice a misdemeanor 
charge of possession of marijuana and resisting an officer against 
Chris Lankford, 31, of Madison, who was charged with passing a joint 
to Devin K. Dutilly, 23, during last year's 36th annual Great Midwest 
Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison.

Oddly, it would seem, defense attorney Peter Steinberg is opposing 
the motion to dismiss. But both Steinberg and Assistant District 
Attorney Karie Cattanach, who is prosecuting the case, have reasons 
for their positions on the dismissal issue.

As in most small-time drug cases, Cattanach offered the defense a 
deal in the case that would involve Lankford, who has no prior 
criminal record, pleading guilty or no contest but he had to accept 
the deal by the time of the final pretrial conference.

When Lankford declined the deal, Cattanach moved to dismiss so she 
could refile the case as a felony charge of possession of marijuana 
with intent to deliver. Steinberg contended that was a vindictive 
action and at one point asked that Fiedler remove Cattanach from the 
case, which Fiedler declined to do.

In briefs filed with the court, Cattanach said "there has been no 
vindictiveness on the part of the state," and that "the defendant was 
given an offer that fully stated if rejected at the final pretrial 
the state would issue felony charges. That is what the state now seeks to do."

But that position also infuriates members of the National 
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and other 
pro-marijuana activists.

"Why is this even before the court?" asks Gary Storck, one of the 
co-founders of the Madison branch of NORML. "Dane County is facing a 
money Shortage. Why is it being wasted on this?"

Storck and others plan to picket the courthouse in protest before the 
11:30 hearing in Fiedler's court, then hope to have several people 
attend the hearing in support of Lankford.

"People are really angry about this. They feel victimized," Storck 
said. "It could have been any of them" who were arrested during the 
annual protest of marijuana laws.

Lankford and Dutilly were arrested at the start of the parade when 
University of Wisconsin Police Officer Michael Mansavage saw Lankford 
slip a joint to Dutilly.

When Mansavage searched Lankford, according to his report on the 
incident, he found five more whole joints and one half-smoked joint 
on Lankford and arrested him. Dutilly was also arrested and his case 
is set for a plea hearing, indicating he accepted a plea deal.

Mansavage is one of two UW officers who arrested and pepper-sprayed 
longtime activist and marijuana advocate Ben Masel as he gathered 
signatures for his run for the U.S. Senate at the Memorial Union last 
summer. Masel is fighting a trespassing ticket in that case and also 
plans to file a civil lawsuit in the near future.

Storck said neither the State Capitol police nor the City of Madison 
police made any arrests at the march and festival in October and that 
people have been smoking marijuana as a protest at the events for 
more than 30 years.

Citing recent violence in the city, Storck said that "people don't 
feel safe on the streets of Madison, but they don't feel threatened 
by a guy smoking a joint."

Steinberg has also filed a motion to suppress evidence in the case, a 
motion which will be heard later if Fiedler declines to dismiss the 
case. In that motion Steinberg contends that while Lankford was being 
held at the UW Police station he asked for a pen and paper to write 
down notes to later give to his lawyer. Mansavage copied those notes, 
even though they were privileged communications between Lankford and 
his lawyer, Steinberg alleges.

Mansavage's report concedes he copied the notes and kept the copies 
in the case file.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman