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<!--StartFragment -->Michael Teague
<CENTER>Medical Marijuana Patient</CENTER>
[size=+1]18 months - Marijuana Conspiracy[/size]
Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - The Daily Journal (CA)
Judge Bashes U.S. On Medi-Pot
Jurist Departs Downward in Sentencing Man to 18 Months
By Mark Cromer, Daily Journal Staff Writer
SANTA ANA - A federal judge has sentenced an Anaheim Hills man to 18 months in prison for possessing marijuana, while at the same time lambasting the continuing federal assault on California's medical-pot law.
The ruling late Monday drew criticism from defense attorneys but dealt a blow to Attorney General John Ashcroft's efforts to get stiff prison terms for Californians who grow marijuana for medical reasons.
"This case embodies the perfect storm of controversy," U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter said before the sentencing. "It has basic and fundamental questions about federalism and states' rights."
Carter's sentence rejected mandatory sentencing guidelines that would have put 33-year-old Michael Teague behind bars for five years.
Noting that his ruling will trigger a review by Ashcroft's office, Carter said he wasn't worried about any heat from Washington, D.C.
"You're only intimidated if you let them intimidate you," he said.
The case of United States v. Teague, SACR02-98 (C.D. Cal. May 22, 2002), has drawn national attention. Monday's sentencing hearing, which ran late into the night, saw a courtroom filled with drug policy experts, medical-marijuana proponents and law enforcement officials.
In sentencing Teague, Carter said that, had police not found a loaded Hechler & Koch 9mm handgun in the defendant's house, the sentence would have been "substantially different," strongly hinting Teague may have walked out of the courtroom.
Instead, as muffled sobs and shouts of "stay strong, Mike" came from family and friends, burly U.S. marshals cuffed Teague, removed his belt and led him into custody.
Teague was arrested by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms two weeks after Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas declined to prosecute him. Rackauckas said Teague's case fell under the state's medical-marijuana law.
Teague is a pool cleaner who maintains he suffers from chronic back pain and had a written "recommendation" for marijuana from a physician.
Before the sentencing, Carter gave a long statement of his views on the history of the drug war, its effectiveness and its emerging role in the friction between federal sovereignty and states' rights.
In handing down the sentence, the judge rejected mandatory-sentencing guidelines and used a "safety valve" procedure to give Teague a reduced term.
The judge found that Teague fit the five-point criteria that allowed Carter to reduce the sentence. The criteria include the defendant having no prior criminal history, not using a firearm or violence in the commission of the offense, not causing death or injury during the offense, not being the leader of a criminal organization and truthfully cooperating with the government.
Carter said he hoped his ruling would set a precedent for judges who have to struggle with mandatory-sentencing guidelines in drug cases such as Teague's.
"I am going to downward depart and have it tested in the Supreme Court, if possible," Carter said.
He later told attorneys, "I am hoping that you and the government rush off to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals."
Both sides said they would.
"While I respect Judge Carter, he unfortunately failed to see the purity of this defendant as a result of the simple presence of the firearm, which he acknowledged was not used to offend," said defense attorney J. David Nick. "We will start work on the appeal tomorrow."
Nick ridiculed prosecutors - even loudly berating them in the hall after the trial - as "zealots" intent on laying waste to California's medical-marijuana laws.
Stopler declined comment.
"Their conduct has been despicable," Nick said.
He is a constitutional law and criminal defense specialist, with a practice in San Francisco.
"They want to send a message not only to distributors of medical marijuana but also to the patients using it," Nick said. "They want to give this guy five years. They have turned into partisans in a political war."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Stolper didn't pull any punches as he hammered away in court on Monday night at the defense's contention that Teague was justifiably using marijuana under a doctor's orders to treat chronic back pain.
Using a computer-generated presentation, Stolper said Teague had a loaded gun within easy access inside the house, scales for weighing dope, and 108 pot plants in an intricate "grow room."
Stolper said Teague had told investigators he accepted "donations" from friends to whom he gave weed.
The donations were generally $200 per ounce, according to a supplemental trial stipulation.
Stolper had offered Teague a deal earlier in the case that would have given him five months in community custody and five months under house arrest. He said Monday that the law required a five-year sentence and that the government also was likely to appeal Carter's ruling.
"The argument that Nick makes is his client was a medical-marijuana user," Stolper said. "He is a grower, he is a user and he is a small-time dealer with no demonstrated medical condition."
Though Carter clearly relished the opportunity to weigh in on the escalating conflict between voter-approved initiatives and federal drug policy, he also said he was aware of the human cost in the drama unfolding Monday night.
Noting that members of Teague's family, including his mother, worked in law enforcement, Carter said he found their testimony to be credible and accurate.
Teague's mother had taken the stand to detail her son's gun use, which she said was primarily for sport shooting. She also testified that she is the one who put the gun in Teague's jacket in his house.
Teague had maintained he had forgotten about the gun and didn't know it was there until agents discovered it when they served a search warrant on his home.
Carter took strong swipes at both sides as he rendered his sentence.
Looking at Teague, who sat somewhat hunched over the defense table with his hands clasped in front of him, Carter told him dryly, "You are a grower. You have a scale. You have a gun in the closet. You got 'donations,' and you think I am dumb."
But the prosecutors had oversold their case, said Carter, who chided the federal attorneys for failing to prove that Teague was in fact a dealer of any consequence.
"The government has backtracked from its position that he was a major dealer," Carter said. "Turns out he's a minnow."
The judge also criticized the prosecution for not delivering on information apparently obtained from an informant in the case.
"I have been deprived of knowing whether he went to the door as a stranger and bought, which makes it look like he's a dealer, or whether he showed up as a friend, which would indicate he's not," Carter said. "Is the informant paid? Is he working off a beef?"
Proponents of medical marijuana likened Teague's case to that of Ed Rosenthal, a medical-marijuana grower whom a federal judge in San Francisco sentenced to a symbolic one-day term earlier this year. The sentence came over the prosecution's efforts to secure a long prison time.
Carter, however, said that, while the judge in the Rosenthal case made a "wise decision," possession of a gun made Teague's case different.
Carter saw a similarity between himself and the judge in the Rosenthal case.
"I am also convinced you are caught in a major power struggle between the federal government and the states," he said.
Mike Gray, chairman of the group Common Sense for Drug Policy, who was monitoring the outcome of Teague's case, said that, if Ashcroft prevails with a prison sentence for Teague, it likely will fuel more federal prosecutions of medical-marijuana users.
"The impact will be profound," Gray said. "I am not hopeful. This whole issue is not about justice or scientific fact. It's about political theater."
"The Bush administration is intent on teaching the voters in California a lesson, that he's in charge and we are not. If they succeed, it is going to be 1954 all over again."
Stolper saw it a little differently.
"The only thing that makes this case a medical-marijuana case is the opinion of the defense attorney," he said, "not the facts."
Michael Teague, prisoner of the drug war
