Pubdate: Wed, 7 Jul 2010
Source: Saginaw News (MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Saginaw News
Contact: http://www.mlive.com/mailforms/sanews/letters/index.ssf/
Website: http://www.mlive.com/saginaw/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/377
Author: Gus Burns, The Saginaw News

SAGINAW-BASED FEDERAL AGENT SAID PROTEST DIDN'T INFLUENCE MEDICAL 
MARIJUANA BUST IN THOMAS TOWNSHIP

THOMAS TOWNSHIP - Saginaw-based federal drug agents said the close 
proximity of a Tuesday raid at the home of Stephanie Whisman, 38, and 
John Roberts, 49, to the rally Roberts organized last week protesting 
action by the Saginaw County Sheriff's Department and calling for the 
recall of Saginaw County Sheriff William L. Federspiel are purely coincidental.

"No, no, this has been ongoing for some time," said Joseph Schihl, 
Drug Enforcement Agency Resident Agent in Charge for the Saginaw Office.

"We did execute a federal search warrant and a large grow was 
seized," he said. "The subjects were detained at the house and 
released pending further investigation."

Schihl said the couple could still be indicted and the evidence is 
being tested at a federal crime lab in Chicago.

Robert and Whisman's Bay City attorney, Ed Czuprynski, called the 
federal action "harassment and retaliation to the protest rally that 
was sponsored... at the courthouse in Saginaw."

"It's pretty unbelievable that they would go to such extremes that 
they have in response to a peaceful demonstration by law-abiding 
citizens," he said. "It appears that there are certain rogue cops 
that refuse to accept the mandate of the public in Michigan... We 
have lawless law enforcement officers."

Czuprynski said it's his opinion that the sheriff's department was 
involved in promoting the raid.

"I'm sure they had a lot to do it, but it's all under the radar, 
though," Czuprynski said. "It's just pure retaliation. It's 
harassment through the abuse of the police power (law enforcement 
agencies) hold."

Czuprynski said he hopes the federal government will return Whisman 
and Roberts' property and grow equipment.

"We're going to make an effort to get it back," he said. "But you 
know: The federal government is pretty big."

Roberts said he and Whisman, members of the Tri-City Compassion Club, 
kept less than the legal limits of plants and usable marijuana as 
established by the state, which would be 132 plants and less than two 
pounds of usable marijuana based on the number of patients the couple 
said they have. 
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