Novi judge provided falsified documents, Oakland prosecutor says

Novi judge provided falsified documents, Oakland prosecutor says

Novi Judge Brian MacKenzie has provided “falsified” court documents to prosecutors to hide his practice of improperly handling domestic violence cases, according to a new filing by Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. And in some cases, he has kept defendants on probation beyond the two years allowed by law, Cooper claims.

Cooper made the allegations in a motion filed before Oakland Circuit Judge Colleen O’Brien to find MacKenzie in contempt of court. O’Brien is expected to issue her ruling within weeks.

 

MacKenzie’s attorney, David Timmis, said, “These attacks are factually inaccurate and misleading,” and accused Cooper of trying to harm MacKenzie’s re-election chances in November.

 

“This is an experienced, compassionate and award-winning judge who has been lauded throughout his career,” Timmis said in an e-mail to the Free Press.

 

Cooper’s office has been reviewing MacKenzie’s files after O’Brien ordered in February that he hand them over to prosecutors because he was treating repeat domestic violence offenders as if they were first-time offenders and then placing them on probation, a violation of state law.

 

“The problems are far worse than we could have imagined,” Cooper wrote in her Aug. 6 filing. Her review of the files uncovered conduct on criminal cases “that ranges from outright dismissals of valid criminal convictions to the falsification of official judicial records; issues that compromise the very integrity of the criminal justice process of that court.”

 

Her office found cases in which defendants were kept on probation after more than two years, a violation of Michigan statutes, she said.

 

Related: Novi judge calls claims of running rogue court ‘inaccurate and misleading’

Related: Oakland prosecutor says Novi judge should be held in contempt

 

Timmis said there was no evidence of doctored files, and the defendants who were on probation for more than two years were serving “protracted” jail sentences or had violated MacKenzie’s probation and faced new charges.

 

If Cooper’s allegations are true, it could spell trouble not just for MacKenzie, but for Oakland County, which funds his court.

 

“This may be much more than bringing a case in front of the judicial tenure commission, this could have a criminal aspect along with civil claims,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and expert on criminal procedure, judicial ethics and the legal profession.

 

Defendants kept on probation longer than two years could sue the county because their rights had been violated, he said.

 

“It would not be a defense even if the probationer agreed to it,” he said. “You’re not agreeing to anything when you’re standing in front of a judge. You’re accepting what the judge does.”

 

In charging that documents have been altered, Cooper cites a 2010 case in which a defendant was charged with assault and battery following a domestic assault. Cooper’s staff obtained a copy of the original 2010 court docket showing the man pleaded no contest, and that MacKenzie took his plea “under advisement” meaning the case would be dropped if the man stayed out of trouble. The file read “Plea Advisement Spouse Act Bench Trial.”

 

The defendant, though, was not eligible for such a deal because he had five prior arrests.

 

The case was closed in April 2012.

 

But when MacKenzie’s staff handed the file over to Cooper’s office on July 11 on orders of O’Brien, the records had changed, Cooper said.

 

There was no mention of spousal abuse or a no-contest plea. Instead, it showed the man had pleaded guilty to a minor drug charge — although there were no drugs involved, and that MacKenzie had again taken the case “under advisement.”

“If records have been altered, that could be a criminal violation for anyone involved,” Henning said.

 

Cooper, in her filing, says, “It requires little speculation to guess why the entries on an illegally dismissed case would be subsequently changed to delete references to the (Spousal Abuse Act).”

 

Timmis denied that the original involved a domestic assault and that the current records provided to the prosecutors are accurate. “There was never any attempt to falsify documents related to this matter” and questioned the accuracy of the prosecutor’s records.

 

O’Brien, should she find MacKenzie in contempt, has several options, including ordering him to appear before her, sanctioning him in writing or jailing him.

 

Cooper has forwarded a copy of her complaint to the Michigan State Court Administrative which can refer it to the tenure commission for sanctions as well.

MacKenzie’s troubles come as he faces his first challenge since he took the bench in 1988. He faced off against two challengers in the Aug. 5 primary and came in second, with 7,727 votes, behind attorney Travis Reeds, who garnered 8,003. Attorney Scott Powers finished third with 5,559 votes.

 

 

Novi judge provided ‘falsified’ documents, Oakland prosecutor says

www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/…/novi-judge…/14314411/

Aug 20, 2014 – Novi Judge Brian MacKenzie has provided “falsified” court documents to prosecutors to hide his practice of improperly handling domestic …

 

Judge MacKenzie – Oakland County

https://www.oakgov.com/courts/dc52div1/Pages/elected_off…/bio_mackenzie.aspx

Brian W. MacKenzie 52nd District Court Judge Judge Brian MacKenzie has served as a Judge of the 52nd District Court, located in Novi Michigan, since 1988.

 

Circuit judge rules Novi judge was sentencing illegally

www.theoaklandpress.com/…/circuit-judge-rules-novi-judge-was-sentencing-illegally

Feb 14, 2014 – It is “uncontested” that a Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie didn’t follow … Jeffrey Arthur Roberts: In another dispute over Michigan’s Spousal …

 

Novi judge accused of wide array of misconduct – The Oakland Press

www.theoaklandpress.com/general…/novi-judge-accused-of-wide-array-of-miscondu…

Jun 11, 2014 – The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission recently filed a formal complaint … death threats against fellow Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie, …

 

Judge Brian MacKenzie accused of trading jail time for… – ClickOnDetroit

www.clickondetroit.com/…/judge-brian-mackenzie-accused-of-trading-jail-time-for-d…

Mar 24, 2014 – NOVI, Mich. – Four years ago, Judge Brian MacKenzie presided over his calling card: a drunken driving case. Walled Lake police upped the …

 

Novi District Judge MacKenzie faces cease and desist order, and …

www.wxyz.com/…/novi-district-judge-mackenzie-faces-cease-and-desist-order-and-p…

Dec 5, 2013 – NOVI, Mich. (WXYZ) – The 7 Action News Investigators are digging deeper into the rare complaint filed by Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica …

 

52-1 District Court Judges Face Heat – Michigan Criminal Defense …

thelawyermichigan.com/judge-powers-judge-mackenzie/

Jan 1, 2016 – Judge Powers and Judge MacKenzie have brought a tremendous amount of negative attention to the 52-1 District Court in Novi. Here is an …

 

Oakland County prosecutor calls probe request a ‘rant’ – Detroit News

www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2015/02/…/23373607/

Feb 13, 2015 – … Jessica Cooper in her handling of concerns at the Novi’s 52-1 District Court. … disputed cases before former Novi Judge Brian MacKenzie.

 

Novi Judge Brian MacKenzie using six-time drunk driver to drive for …

www.theoaklandpress.com/…/novi-judge-brian-mackenzie-using-six-time-drunk-driv…

Oct 19, 2014 – Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie has been using a convicted felon with history of drunken driving and other offenses to drive around and …

 

FBI said to be reviewing secret recording by Mich. judge – USA Today

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/24/judge-secret…fbi…/6825947/

Mar 24, 2014 – A secret recording being reviewed by the FBI of Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie and defense attorney Timothy Corr discussing a case in …

 

Neil Rockind Comments On Judge Brian MacKenzie And Complaint …

www.rockindlaw.com/neil-rockind-comments-on-judge-brian-mackenzie-and-compla…

Dec 5, 2013 – At about 5:00-5:30 a.m., I awake, grab a cup of coffee and scan the headlines for interesting stories. Today, I found one that disappointed me.

Oakland County medical marijuana case comes at key moment

Oakland County medical marijuana case comes at key moment

His lawyers say he’s the innocent victim of illegal search and seizure aimed at medical-marijuana users. Police and prosecutors beg to differ

 

Donny Barnes said he just wants to be a regular guy.

 

He just wants to run his small businesses scattered around Oakland County. Just wants to hang out with his family at their split-level home on a woodsy street. And just wants to keep using medical marijuana for calming the neck and shoulder pain that Barnes said has plagued him ever since he was in a snowboarding accident at age 19.

 

But a drug bust in 2014 “turned my life upside down,” said Barnes, 41, of Orion Township. Police seized his property, shutting down his antique resale and spyware businesses, and charged him with possessing more than 100 pounds of marijuana, which Barnes and his lawyers argued didn’t belong to him.

 

This month, after two years of legal battles, Barnes’ lawyers claimed what they called a rare victory against the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, widely known for its aggressive prosecutions of medical-marijuana cases; and against the confiscatory tactics of OAKNET, the county’s much-feared Narcotics Enforcement Team.

 

Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris dismissed a criminal charge against Barnes — marijuana possession with intent to distribute — and she ruled that police had failed to establish probable cause for raiding Barnes’ house, his office and warehouse.

 

Ecstatic at the ruling early this month, Barnes’ lawyers said it was a sign that times are changing — that a Michigan judge, even in such a conservative bastion as Oakland County, refused to continue waging the discredited war on drugs against one of Michigan’s medical marijuana users.

 

Yet, Oakland County law-enforcement officials said Barnes merely got lucky with a lenient judge and that, on appeal, the tables would be turned.

 

A county sheriff’s spokesman said that detectives had indisputable evidence of Barnes having been a big-time marijuana dealer, one who’d tried to hide his illegal activity under the cloak of medical marijuana while overseeing the sale of plastic baggies of marijuana to total strangers — a violation of the state law that allows “transfers” of the medicinal drug but only from a state-registered “caregiver” to that person’s five registered “patients.”

 

Police seize property and cash in questionable raids

Watchdog group gives Michigan a ‘D-‘ on forfeiture laws

► Cannabis industry roiled by White House comments on enforcement

 

The spokesman said that nothing about the ruling would change the tactics of Oakland County’s drug investigators. And the prosecutor’s office said it decided last week to appeal.

 

The outcome of the appeal could decide not only Barnes’ fate but also whether his case becomes a landmark ruling that aids others in similar circumstances.

 

The appeal of the case will explore just what constitutes a legal search and seizure of citizens in Michigan, who have faced civil forfeiture of their cars, cash and even their farmland and houses in some marijuana busts.

 

It will be argued in a year when Michigan could pivot toward more tolerance of the drug, or the state could adopt even tighter restraints under a Trump administration whose top law enforcer is the notoriously anti-marijuana Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

 

And the appeal will occur in a year that began with Gov. Rick Snyder signing a bill that gives limited protections to citizens facing civil forfeiture; they no longer must pay a bond of 10% of the value of their seized property to challenge the forfeiture in court. When Snyder signed the bill in early January, both sides of the political spectrum in Michigan — both the conservative/Libertarian Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the liberal American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan — called for more protections.

 

Outside Michigan, in 12 other states, law enforcement must get a criminal conviction before a suspect forfeits property, and in two states — New Mexico and Nebraska — civil forfeiture is altogether banned, Jarrett Skorup, spokesman for the Mackinac Center, said in the news release.

 

It was late November 2014 when police shook up what Barnes said was his tranquil lifestyle.

 

“They even took the Christmas presents I had wrapped for my kids,” Barnes said.

 

Heavily armed police in masks seized his family’s cars as well as the business computers, tools and considerable inventory of his several trades, and took the contents of several bank accounts including one belonging to his mother. That scenario is a familiar one around Michigan, and especially in Oakland County, where authorities are notorious among marijuana users for being merciless to those accused of skirting Michigan’s medical marijuana act.

 

Countless defendants in such cases, lacking the money to mount aggressive legal defenses, have been forced to plea bargain, to give up their possessions and accept jail or prison sentences as well as pay fines said David Moffitt a Bingham Farms lawyer.

 

One of two attorneys defending Barnes. Because his family “has significant resources,” Barnes was able to fight back and win the dismissal, Moffitt said.

 

This ruling “sends a strong message that in appropriate procedures on the part of police and prosecutors will result in dismissal. To have an Oakland County judge dismiss search warrants for faulty procedures is a game-changer in the state because everyone looks at Oakland County for their legal leadership on key issues.

 

“What this judge said was that you can’t just kick down doors and seize people’s property without having good reason to do so,” he said.

 

The same judge, after reviewing a lengthy brief submitted by Barnes’ attorneys, allowed him in a ruling last fall to use medical marijuana while out on bond “for a very demonstrable medical need,” instead of the opioid painkilling pills that caused him dangerous side effects, Moffitt said.

 

Getting a judge’s approval to use the drug as a bond condition is rare enough, but Moffitt said he was thrilled that Langford Morris wrote a detailed opinion justifying her circuit court ruling, making it precedent-setting for the state, he said.

 

One strikingly unfair tactic of Oakland County authorities is to arrest a medical-marijuana user, seize property “and then not even file charges if the defendant doesn’t contest the forfeiture — that’s become a standard approach there,” Moffitt added. Barnes wasn’t arrested until 14 months after the raids, seemingly not until he “aggressively challenged and contested the forfeiture case” in a civil case completely separate from his criminal case, his lawyer said.

 

“Both Mr. Barnes and I believe that the Oakland County sheriff’s department is protecting us every day, but I think they must agree that not everything they do is done perfectly in every case, and this is one of those cases,” said Moffitt, who is a former Oakland County commissioner from Farmington Hills.

 

Medical-marijuana cases can be complex, said Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe. And so, there was nothing odd or unfair about how long detectives took to investigate before Barnes was arrested, he said. “With the sensitivity of these cases, the prosecutor goes over them with a fine-tooth comb” before approving arrest warrants, he said.

 

The sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices have taken strong and specific issue with the dismissal of charges against Barnes. Among his small-business activities was a monthly free magazine called The Burn, whose masthead listed as publisher “Donald Barnes III.” Each edition was loaded with full-color ads, the most prominent ones being those for Metro Detroit Compassion Club, a facility open six days a week at the same address in Waterford Township as Barnes’ magazine

.

Among the come-ones for the Metro Detroit Compassion Club? “All meds locally grown … Providing our members only the best … We now accept valid out-of-state medical cards.”

 

That line refers to cards issued by numerous states, including Michigan, showing that someone is approved to use medical marijuana although not approved to buy medical cannabis from just anyone in Michigan except under the state’s tightly controlled system that ties caregivers to five so-called and only five “patients.

 

So, when undercover informants of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office were able to buy medical marijuana last year four times at the Metro Detroit Compassion Club, detectives linked that wrongdoing to Barnes, who was listed as the “resident agent” on the incorporation papers of the nonprofit club.

 

That’s when they decided to burst into the magazine’s offices, as well as into the compassion club at the same address where they found about two pounds of marijuana, and into a warehouse Barnes owned that was full of marijuana plants and more than 100 pounds of marijuana stored in refrigerators, as well as into Barnes’ rambling modern house that held about four pounds, McCabe said.

 

Did all of the marijuana belong to Barnes? If the case goes to trial, prosecutors will show that much of it did and the motive was to sell the drug for profit, McCabe said. At the warehouse, “the marijuana was in small baggies in refrigerators,” he said.

 

As for the nonprofit compassion club, it constituted a dispensary — a retail outlet for selling marijuana, McCabe said. Even though Detroit is said to have more than 100 dispensaries, operating mostly without interference by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Oakland County authorities abide by the view of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has declared dispensaries illegal in Michigan that will soon change, but it hasn’t yet, McCabe said.

 

Dispensaries are going to be legal in Michigan, through a new law enacted last year, “but not until at least early 2018 — that’s what we’ve been told by people in Lansing; that’s the soonest anybody can get a license to operate one,” McCabe said.

A top attorney at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office was adamant about not dropping Barnes’ case.

 

“We felt that the evidence rose to the level showing that Mr. Barnes was violating state law,” said Paul Walton, Oakland County’s chief assistant prosecutor.

 

The judge “made the statement that Mr. Barnes was simply an officer of the corporation, but there’s every reason to believe that he had significant involvement, if not outright ownership,” in the dispensary masquerading as a nonprofit club, Walton said.

 

So,was the ruling was a victory for medical-marijuana users across Michigan, as Barnes’ attorneys insist? Or just a temporary setback to the law-enforcement establishment in Oakland County, standard bearers for a rigid approach to users and distributors of medical marijuana?

 

Only time, and Michigan’s higher courts, will tell.

 

https://komornlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Oakland-County-medical-marijuana-case-comes-at-key-moment.pdf

 

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com

 

The House Just Stripped Medical Marijuana States Of Protection From The DEA

The House Just Stripped Medical Marijuana States Of Protection From The DEA

States that have legalized medical marijuana could soon get an unwanted visit from the DEA. Yesterday, Congress stunned the cannabis industry by rejecting the only legal protection preventing Attorney General Jeff “good people don’t smoke marijuana” Sessions from cracking down on those 30 states for violating federal cannabis prohibition.

 

Back in 2014, lawmakers passed an amendment to the federal budget to protect state-legalized medical marijuana industries and the patients they serve. The amendment prevented the DEA from spending a single penny on enforcing cannabis prohibition in those states. It didn’t overturn federal cannabis prohibition or legalize medical marijuana, but it did tie the Department of Justice’s hands by freezing their finances.

 

At the time, medical marijuana was legal in 21 states, a number that has grown to 30 since then. But they could all be shuttered soon because that amendment — which has to be renewed with every budget — was rejected yesterday by the House Rules Committee. That means the House can’t include the rider in their final version of the federal budget.

 

If the budget passes without that rider, budtenders, dispensary owners, doctors recommending cannabis and even medical marijuana patients could face prosecution for their involvement in the industry. And not just for what they’re doing right now. They could be charged with offences dating back to when they got involved in the state’s cannabis industry.

 

And Attorney General Sessions might do just that since he’s been itching to crackdown on those states. Since taking office, Sessions has ramped up anti-marijuana rhetoric in America. And last May, he asked Congress to drop the amendment so that he could unleash the DEA on medical marijuana states if he saw fit. His request was denied in July by the Senate Appropriations Committee, but it seems like his message resonated in the House.

 

The fight for the marijuana amendment isn’t over yet though. The budget has yet to reach the Senate, where the rider could be re-inserted with support from Senators Cory Booker (D – NJ), Mike Lee (R – UT), Lisa Murkowski (R – AK), Rand Paul (R – KY), Bernie Sanders (D – VT) and others.

 

But even if it does get reinserted and passed, the amendment only buys patients, doctors and businesses a small window of relief before they have to start looking over their shoulders for DEA helicopters again. The reality is that the industry won’t be safe until Congress listens to the 94 percent of Americans who support medical marijuana and changes the country’s criminally outdated cannabis laws.

 

By James McClure  |  Sep 7, 2017  |  Politics

https://www.civilized.life/articles/medical-marijuana-states-stripped-dea-protection/

 

The House Just Stripped Medical Marijuana States Of Protection From The DEA

Federal Medical Marijuana Prisoners and Cases

http://www.marijuanaliferproject.org/

Federal prisoner Ricardo Montes is on Obama’s clemency list and will be released in May 2017. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, his co-defendant Luke Scarmazzo’s petition was denied last week. Luke has already served 10 years and isn’t scheduled for release until 2027. Read more.

Charles Lynch filed an Appropriations Act, 2015 Section 538 Motion to end his prosecution for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in 2006. He is due in court in LA on February 2, 2017 in Los Angeles.

Eddy Lepp was released in December 2016 following eight years of imprisonment.

NEWS:

US Court Records Show Nearly 500 Years in Prison Time for Medical Marijuana Offenses

LAST UPDATED: 1/19/2017

Pending Cases in California and Elsewhere In Prison Sentenced or Case Terminated Died Pending Prosecution Raided by DEA (partial list)

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