Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jun 2010
Source: Express (Nelson, CN BC)
Page: Front Page
Copyright: 2010 Kootenay Express Communication Corp.
Contact: http://www.expressnews.ca/letters.html
Website: http://www.expressnews.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2339
Author: Julia Gillmor
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Holy+Smoke

JAILTIME AVOIDED ON SENTENCE APPEAL

Middlemiss and Defelice Sentenced With House Arrest Instead of 
Incarceration in Holy Smoke Case

On Wednesday, June 2, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the 
highest court in BC, decided unanimously to reduce the sentences 
facing former Holy Smoke Culture Shop owners Paul DeFelice and Alan 
Middlemiss and employee Kelsey Stratas.

DeFelice and Middlemiss faced a sentence of one year in jail that was 
reduced to nine months house arrest.  Stratas, originally given nine 
months in jail, received six months house arrest.  "This sentence is 
far more appropriate.  In fact, it's better than what they had hoped 
for" said defense attorney Donald Skogstad.  "When you go into an 
appeal you're saying to one judge that another judge is wrong and you 
have to prove pretty substantial error."

As a business, Holy Smoke has been closed down for more than a year 
and the building has since been sold.  DeFelice and Middlemiss made 
it clear to the courts that they will not continue in that business, 
nor start another one. "That was a big factor for the court, that 
they were on bail for four years and no similar activity occurred and 
they expressed at the trial that they didn't intend to continue 
selling. They are advocates and they make no apologies for that," 
Skogstad relays. "They made the point that advocacy is perfectly 
legal and that the judge must have confused advocacy with an intent 
to reoffend. That was the essence of the problem."

The sentencing of house arrest sets a significant legal precedent. 
"The decision is very strong affirmative support of house arrest for 
everybody under every circumstance.  That's what I like about it from 
a legal scholarly point of view.  It's a decision that will now be 
used to support house arrest on every kind of case you can imagine 
where it's still available," said Skogstad.

"If this case has set a precedent for anything, then it is making 
house arrest more available, which is appropriate.  With non-violent 
offenders like this it should be the rule not the exception."

Where advocacy is concerned, DeFelice and Middlemiss have not changed 
their stance on marijuana.  "They will continue to be advocates, they 
made that clear all along.  Advocacy has gotten their cause a long 
way.  There's now medical marijuana because of advocates," adds Skogstad.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom