Lorincz lost custody of his 6-year-old son in part due to this felony.
After reporting on the case over nine months, FOX 17 exclusively reported a shocking email chain that spans months between Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division employees and the Attorney General’s office.
Obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, these emails show debates on how the state’s crime labs changed how they report marijuana. The defense, attorney Michael Komorn and Komorn Law, PLLC, is charging state agencies with directing the lab employees to falsely present results on marijuana products, including cases where plant material is not seen.
The result: felony charges Komorn argues are lies.
Komorn showed evidence in emails that MSP Forensic Science Division is being directed by the Attorney General’s office and the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan (PAAM) to change the way marijuana is reported to create felonies. PAAM is a non-profit, which is governed by a board of directors including the Attorney General.
“What is unique about this case is that they [the prosecution] are relying on the lab to report these substances so that they can escalate these crimes from misdemeanors to felonies,” said Komorn.
Documents obtained via FOIA, showcase emails about meetings (for instance, July 2013) and direct communication between MSP Forensic Science Division directors, scientists, PAAM, as well as officials with the AG’s office.
An excerpt from an email dated Dec. 13, 2013 suggests an AG official influenced the state crime labs on whether it is the lab’s responsibility to determine if THC tested is natural or synthetic; again, this is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony.
A technical leader of controlled substances with MSP crime labs wrote an email to colleagues and quoted Ken Stecker, an official with the AG’s office:
“That is my opinion, THC is a schedule 1 drug regardless of where it comes from. I hope that helps. Ken”
Then, the technical leader of controlled substances at a state lab continues to direct other state lab personnel and write:
“Examiner’s that are identifying food products or other non-plant materials as marihuana without the visualization of any plant material should discontinue this practice. The final identification of all phases of testing can only be marihuana when plant fragments, portions, samples, plant hairs or actual plants are visualized by the scientist. To my knowledge, the only other two laboratories that have expressed this concern are Northville and Lansing.”
Komorn believes this policy change is not science-based.
“This is like a political decision, and somewhere in there they say well Ken Stecker is going to be the consultant on this going forward, and his position is that THC is a schedule 1,” said Komorn.
“That’s not the law. That’s an incorrect, illegal misinterpretation of the law that he then decrees as the policy for the state lab.”
This AG official’s “opinion” was written into lab procedure. Several emails show other MSP lab supervisors and scientists vehemently oppose it.
For example, a MSP Lansing controlled substances supervisor wrote his disagreements with this policy to colleagues, including an excerpt from an email dated Feb. 14, 2014:
“Prosecutor’s rely on our reports to determine what to charge a person with. A report that states delta-1-THC without any other statement would lead a Prosecutor to the synthetic portion of the law since this is the only place where THC is specifically listed. This could lead to the wrong charge of possession of synthetic THC and the ultimate wrongful conviction of an individual. For the laboratory to contribute to this possible miscarriage of justice would be a huge black eye for the Division and the Department.”
This supervisor wrote further concerns in an email to many colleagues nearly one year later, dated Jan. 28, 2015, writing in part:
“Upon reading this correspondence I immediately thought about the Guiding Principles training we receive yearly. Under Professionalism it states that “Conclusions are based on the evidence and reference material relevant to the evidence, not on extraneous information, political pressure, or other outside influences.” Whether or not an individual has a medical marijuana card is immaterial to how we report out our results.
When we made the previous changes I made it very apparent that I did not agree with it. One of my concerns was that by reporting out THC instead of marihuana it would lead to Prosecutors charging people with synthetic THC. This appears to be what the agency wants.”
Another MSP Northville lab scientist wrote the following to colleagues, stating concerns with new reporting policy:
“In order to place the actual compound THC in schedule 1, the criteria of ‘synthetic equivalent’ should be met. Since we really can’t do this, there are many of us who feel that these new evidentiary materials containing THC without any botanical morphology characteristics (candy, butter, etc..) should be identified as resinous extracts of Marihuana.
If you are to call it ‘THC,’ at a minimum, a statement should be provided in the additional information stating that the ‘origin, whether naturally occurring or synthetic could not be determined.’ Also, by going out on that limb and calling it THC, you now jump from a misdemeanor to a felony charge.
We’re bringing this up because there seemed to be some concern about uniformity in making these calls. Further, it is highly doubtful that any of these Med. Mar. products we are seeing have THC that was synthesized. This would be completely impractical. We are more likely seeing naturally occurring THC extracted from the plant!”
“The most damning evidence is that their own forensic scientists, when they’re objecting to the way the lab is going to change their reporting policies, calls them out that they can’t do it based on forensic science, and yet they do it anyways,” said Komorn.
Thursday afternoon, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan’s President Michael Wendling responded to FOX 17’s questions with the following statements:
“The Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division sets its own testing and reporting protocols. Neither PAAM nor county prosecutors make those protocols.”
“The MSP Forensic Science Division makes its own decisions relative to the lab protocol. Any decision to report that the source of THC is undetermined does not create a misdemeanor or felony offense. Lab reports document the findings of scientific testing. Those findings, in conjunction with other relevant evidence are considered by prosecutors may be used in when the decision whether to charge a crime and which crime to charge is made.”
“Prosecutors do not receive requests to charge criminal cases from the MSP Forensic Science Division. The MSP Forensic Division reports scientific findings. Prosecutors receive those reports and use them to make decisions regarding whether there is sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges. Any accusation that the Lab and PAAM are directing lab personnel to report crimes without evidence is untrue. PAAM has no authority over, nor does it direct the MSP Forensic Science Division.”
Yet again in this case, several lab scientists and supervisors expressed they are against this new marijuana reporting protocol.
As FOX 17 reported, the defense filed several motions in Ottawa County Circuit Court this week. The motions ask for Max Lorincz’s charges to be dismissed, as well as asking the accused organizations’ employees to show cause, or credible evidence to show science backs their protocol, in order to not be held in contempt of court.
43rd District Court Judge Robert Turner says it is one of the worst pieces of legislation he has ever seen. He made that assessment of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) back in June 2009 when dismissing pot growing charges brought by the Oakland County Prosecutor against Robert Lee Redden and Torey Alison Clark. Last week, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Oakland Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson’s reinstatement of the criminal charges against Redden and Clark. Now, the accused Madison Heights couple will either have to plead or go to trial. At the time of the raid on the couple’s residence, the Oakland County Sheriff seized 1.5 ounces of pot, some nominal cash, and about 21 small plants. Three weeks prior to the raid, each defendant had submitted to a medical certification exam with Dr. Eric Eisenbud (not making it up) of Colorado (and of the recently founded Hemp and Cannabis Foundation Medical Clinic) and applied for a medical marijuana card pursuant to the MMA. Their cards, however, had not been issued at the time of the raid. At the couple’s preliminary examination before Judge Turner, the prosecutor argued that: a) the defendants were required to abstain from “medicating” with marijuana while their applications to the State of Michigan’s Department of Community Health were pending; and b) the defendants did not have a bona fide physician-patient relationship with Dr. Eisenbud. Judge Turner indicated that the MMA was confusing relative to what constituted a reasonable amount of marijuana. The defendants in this case were found with an ounce and a half; the MMA allows 2.5 ounces. Judge Turner made the following ruling:
For that reason, I believe that section 8 entitles the defendants to a dismissal, even though they did not possess the valid medical card, because section 8 says if they can show the fact that a doctor believed that they were likely to receive a therapeutic benefit, and this doctor testified to that. And Dr. Eisenbud is a physician licensed by the State of Michigan. And that’s the only requirement that the statute has. You don’t have to be any type of physician, you just have to be a licensed physician by the State of Michigan.
So, based on that, I find section 8 does apply. And I believe I’m obligated to dismiss this matter based on section 8 of the statute.
Under the applicable court rules, the prosecutor appealed the district court dismissal to the Oakland Circuit Court. In reversing her district court counter-part, Judge Anderson held that Judge Turner improperly acted as a finder of fact in dismissing the case. Judge Anderson also questioned whether the couple could avail themselves of the MMA’s affirmative defenses at all, due to their purported failures to comply with the provisions of the act; i.e. keeping the pot segregated and locked-up, and waiting until they received their cards from the Department of Community Health prior to growing their pot. At the time of the Madison Heights bust, however, the couple could not have received marijuana cards because the DCH had not started issuing the cards. To date, almost 30,000 certifications have been issued. In their opinion last week affirming Judge Anderson, the Court of Appeals held that the MMA’s affirmative defenses were available to defendants even though they did not have their cards at the time their pot was confiscated. The Court of Appeals held against defendants, however, on the basis that, at the time of their preliminary examination in district court, their affirmative defense under the MMA was incomplete and thus created fact questions. The Court found the following fact issues to be unresolved at the conclusion of the exam: the bona fides of the physician-patient relationship; whether the amount of marijuana found in the residence was “reasonable” under the Act; and whether the marijuana was being used by defendants for palliative purposes, as required by the Act. The most interesting thing about the Court of Appeals’ Redden decision is the scathing concurring opinion of Judge Peter D. O’Connell. Judge O’Connell wrote separately because he would have more narrowly tailored the affirmative defenses available in the MMA, and because he wished to “elaborate” on some of the general discussion of the Act set forth in the briefs and at oral argument. Elaborate he did. Judge O’Connell’s 30-page opinion first notes that the possession, distribution and manufacture of marijuana remains a federal crime and further notes that Congress has expressly found the plant to have “no acceptable medical uses.” In what will undoubtedly become a classic line from his opinion, Judge O’Connell writes, “I will attempt to cut through the haze surrounding this legislation.” The judge is skeptical that folks are really using pot to “medicate” and suspects that they are using the plant for recreational purposes. He also takes note of the poor quality of the legislation to the extent that it conflicts with other provisions set forth in the Health Code. Judge O’Connell next takes a tour de force through the legislative history of the MMA. Here, we learn that the act was based on model legislation proposed by lobbyists known as the Marijuana Policy Project of Washington D.C. The group advances both the medicinal and recreational uses of marijuana. “Confusion”, and lots of it, is how Judge O’Connell views the MMA. In one of the many footnotes to his opinion, the Judge warns against all marijuana use until the score is settled, once and for all, by the Michigan Supreme Court:
Until our Supreme Court provides a final comprehensive interpretation of this act, it would be prudent for the citizens of this state to avoid all use of marijuana if they do not wish to risk violating state law. I again issue a stern warning to all: please do not attempt to interpret this act on your own. Reading this act is similar to participating in the Triwizard Tournament described in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: the maze that is this statute is so complex that the final result will only be known once the Supreme Court has had an opportunity to review and remove the haze from this act.
Euan Abercrombie, 1st year student at the Hogwarts school would probably remark; “Wow”. For their part, the criminal defense bar, commenting via listserv, have basically gone wild over the concurring opinion, with its multiple web site references and pictures of marijuana advertisements. The consensus among the defense bar, however, is that the majority opinion is correct and that Judge Anderson, at the end of the day, got it right; Redden was not the cleanest case to dismiss under the Act. Finally, it seems that the Oakland County Sheriff and Prosecutor correctly anticipated last week’s Court of Appeals’ decision. A few weeks prior to the issuance of the Redden decision, they conducted a series of dispensary raids, ruffling tons of feathers along the way. For some preliminary guidance, we have prepared a legal guide for the MMA for those seeking to use marijuana for legitimate palliative purposes under the Act. Take note, however, that at least one appellate jurist would have folks managing chronic “pain” with prescription meds until the medical marijuana mess is sorted out by our Supreme Court.
Monday, September 20, 2010
April 2011 Update: As we’ve warned our readers, and as Judge O’Connell warned in his opinion, marijuana possession remains a federal crime. This week, the feds raided a warehouse-style dispensary in Commerce Township. The law enforcement action is covered in this article in the Oakland Press.
When Deborah Young of Ferndale sent her $60 fee to Lansing this year to register as a medical-marijuana user, she assumed the state would use her money to review her paperwork and print her ID card.
The fees are “for the operation and oversight of the Michigan medical marihuana program,” says state law — spelling marijuana with an “h,” the old-fashioned way as in federal law.
Last month, though, Young said she and other card holderswere shocked to learn that Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs — LARA — had built up so much in fees that it gave $1.2 million to 18 county sheriffs, including those in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. The grants are intended via legislative approval to be used by sheriffs for training and enforcement of Michigan’s medical marijuana act.
“They’re raiding the same people who paid those fees,” said Young, 58, who has glaucoma, a serious eye disease approved for medical-marijuana treatment in Michigan.
“We couldn’t believe it,” said Young. Ferndale residents learned not only that the Oakland County Sheriff received fee revenue from the ID cards but that their own city’s police department was set to get a share of it for use in medical-marijuana investigations.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office received $323,725 this year from LARA, according to a county memo sent to cities getting the grant offers. According to the memo, the county sheriff plans to spend $98,000 on 28 raid-style bulletproof vests, $80,000 on a Chevrolet van, pickup and trailer to transport seized marijuana plants; $10,000 to train investigators, and $134,000 for overtime pay to medical-marijuana investigators. Much of the overtime pay is being offered to 15 communities in Oakland County that lend officers to OAKNET — the Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team.
The Ferndale City Council rubber-stamped the grant without discussion in mid-July. Rochester and Royal Oak city councils also voted last month to accept grant money. Ferndale’s share of $5,582 was to pay overtime for officers in countywide medical-marijuana raids, according to the county memo.
When Young and other residents began calling the city to complain, the council put the grant back on its agenda. And it prompted Young to stand before the council members to demand that they rescind their decision.
“Why would we need a medical-marijuana oversight grant in Ferndale? Why would we even be a part of something to harass sick people?” she told council members.
Her questions also prompted bigger ones: Whether medical-marijuana users are primarily law-abiding Michiganders who merely seek a respite from pain and other conditions approved for medical-marijuana treatment; or whether they’re mainly seeking a sensory high, with the aid of complicit doctors willing to sign forms, and of drug dealers bent on making big profits while dodging federal drug laws.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he sees dispensary operators as a serious threat to society.
“These grants aren’t to prosecute someone who’s not breaking the law,” Bouchard said. Oakland County’s memo offering grants to local police departments, provided to 15 city councils and township boards, said that medical marijuana “is being smuggled, mailed and transported into Oakland County from other states on a regular basis.” Michigan’s medical marijuana act, a vague law passed by voters in 2008, is an invitation to drug dealing, profiteering and the involvement of organized crime, Bouchard said.
Bouchard is unabashed about his vigorous campaign to wipe outdispensaries in Oakland County, citing a state Supreme Court ruling in 2011, which Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has said means that most dispensaries were illegal in Michigan. Law enforcement officials in some counties, including Wayne, have tolerated the spread of dispensaries, but Bouchard said he is adamantly opposed to such leniency.
Oakland County investigators recently learned that two workers at a chain of four dispensaries, operating in Wayne and Oakland counties, were shot by a rival group, he said.
“One individual was murdered. The other was shot several times, but survived,” Bouchard said, adding: “I don’t care what some other counties are doing. The law says these types of facilities are illegal (and) they put law-abiding citizens at risk.”
The practice of turning medical-marijuana users’ fees against them by police agencies is not new in Michigan, although this year’s escalation of grants was shocking, said Rick Thompson, editor of the online Compassion Chronicles, a blog for medical-marijuana patients.
“This started out as a small, hidden part of the state’s budget in fiscal year 2014,” Thompson said. As the medical-marijuana funds swelled from cranking out ID cards, the Legislature began earmarking grant money for county sheriffs, Thompson said.
“The language said it would be for education about and enforcement of Michigan’s medical marijuana act, but you can see what that turned into,” he said. In the first year, four counties spent $116,000, state records show.
This year, the grant money grew tenfold, said State Representative Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor. The Macomb County Sheriff is allowed up to$254,125, and the Wayne County Sheriff got $473,256, Irwin said.
The grants could expand dramatically again next year because LARA now has a whopping $31 million in its medical-marijuana fund, mainly from fees paid for ID cards by nearly 200,000 Michiganders, who were either approved to use medical marijuana or approved to be caregivers and provide medical marijuana to others.
The fee revenue this year flows in at nearly $9 million a year, $3 million more than the cost to administer the program, Irwin said.
Funneling fresh windfalls to law enforcement could mean more raids of dispensaries, home growing operations and other medical-marijuana sites, Irwin said.
Michigan is one of only two states that allows medical marijuana but doesn’t allow dispensaries, said Karen O’Keefe, a lawyer who is director of state policies for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project.
“The big problem in Michigan is that the Legislature just has not updated the law” to allow dispensaries, O’Keefe said.
“It just does not make sense that you tell people, your only legal option is to plant a seed and wait four to five months” for it to grow the plant, said O’Keefe, in Grosse Pointe Woods last week to visit her parents.
Law-enforcement leaders have lobbied to block bills in Lansing that would’ve allowed and regulated dispensaries. This fall’s lame-duck session of the state Legislature could change that, said State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge.
“Right now, we have a package of bills that would do that, and in a way that would be acceptable to police, acceptable to the cities and townships, and acceptable I think to most of the patients,” said Jones, a former sheriff of Eaton County and chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The only people who oppose this are the ones who are profiting greatly” by hiding criminal enterprises behind the cover of Michigan’s medical marijuana law, he said. In the meantime, police must keep the pressure on those who’ve turned dispensaries into dens of illegal drug dealing, he said.
At the Ferndale City Council meeting late last month, another speaker who opposed accepting the county’s grant was former Ferndale mayor Craig Covey, a strong supporter of fully legalized marijuana. Covey is running in November against Bouchard for Oakland County Sheriff.
“So the money that’s coming back to Ferndale (as a grant to police) is coming from people with glaucoma, people with pain conditions, people who are legal patients using medical marijuana, and it’s being used to shut down compassion clubs and dispensaries,” Covey told the city council.
Standing nearby, Ferndale police Chief Timothy Collins already was counting on having an extra $5,000 in his budget.
“This is simply a vehicle for the city to be reimbursed for some of our overtime. Royal Oak accepted it two weeks ago,” Collins told the city council.
After a short debate, the council voted 3-1 to rescind its previous vote. The grant had been rejected. “Thank you, Ferndale!” shouted Young, as she and others applauded. But moments earlier, the audience heard Councilman Dan Martin’s dire assessment of the vote: “I understand that this is a symbolic stance — the county’s going to do what it’s going to do.”
Bill Laitner , Detroit Free Press 10:39 p.m. EDT August 6, 2016
DETROIT — Attorneys filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Michigan State Police crime labs this week, claiming its current marijuana reporting policy violates due process and Fourth Amendment rights and demanding it be thrown out for good.
This suit would have statewide impact, directly affecting the some 180,000 registered medical marijuana patients and anyone caught with marijuana in Michigan. Attorneys Michael Komorn and Tim Daniels filed the suit Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Detroit Division.
They write the crime labs intentionally misreport marijuana as synthetic, as we saw in the Max Lorincz case in Ottawa County. A judge threw out his felony drug charge 16 months into the case; meanwhile, Lorincz’s 6-year-old son spent 18 months in foster care.
Lorincz is one of the four plaintiffs in the complaint.
But it goes further, writing that the 2013 marijuana policy in the labs was “made in an attempt to strip medical marijuana patients of their rights and immunities, charge or threaten to charge citizens with greater crimes than they might have committed, obtain plea deals and increase proceeds from drug forfeiture.”
“The fact that it continues to go on,” said Komorn, “it’s an outrage; it’s not science. The Michigan Medical Marijuana [Program] was supposed to be a shield, not a sword.”
Last fall, the MSP Forensic Science Division Director Captain Gregoire Michaud, whoquietly retired this May, made a presentation for the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar. Michaud had said out of the crime labs’ $60 million budget, 40 percent was spent on testing marijuana. He said this caseload volume impeded their work on investigating other cases, specifically testing rape kits statewide.
Komorn reiterated this suit is working to dismiss this policy in the labs and rearrange the state police’s priorities.
“That’s one of the things that I’m hoping comes out of this, is that we turn the focus away from and onto the more, that we would all agree, serious crimes that we need full-on police investigation attention,” said Komorn.
The MSP Public Affairs Manager Shanon Banner told FOX 17 Wednesday they will not comment on a pending case, defaulting to their Nov. 2015 statement.
Later this year, the state police labs are up for their renewal of their international accreditation with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board. It is likely the MSP’s crime labs’ marijuana misreporting allegations will be challenged during this process.
A Michigan man has been living a nightmare. He lost custody of his son after a felony marijuana bust, even though he has a valid medical marijuana card.
Max Lorincz is fighting to clear his name after he was accused of possessing synthetic marijuana. His bizarre case has revealed how politics might influence pot prosecutions in Michigan.
Lorincz claims he suffers from a debilitating back injury. He says when he traded prescription drugs for this edible candy containing marijuana his symptoms got better.
But it was a small amount of hash oil that landed Lorincz in the weeds.
Police found it when paramedics came to his house on an unrelated medical emergency. Prosecutors charged Lorincz with a felony after the state crime lab determined his hash oil came from an “origin unknown,” implying it is synthetic.
Michigan’s medical marijuana law says only leaves and flowers are legal, and concentrates are a crime.
“I’ve had to go back to the narcotic pain medications, and it’s just terrible,” said Lorincz.
Lorincz tells Crime Watch Daily Grand Rapids affiliate WXMI as his case wound its way through the system, he was forced to go back on powerful painkillers.
“The doctors are telling me one thing, the judge is saying another, and when I followed my doctor’s recommendations, that’s when my health started to get better,” Lorincz said. “Going back and following what the judge is saying, my health’s just been deteriorating ever since.”
Max Lorincz says what was worse was losing custody of his 6-year-old boy. In court a social worker testified against Lorincz, saying his use of marijuana, even if it is legal, may make him an unfit parent.
“This is a political decision,” said Lorincz’s lawyer Michael Komorn.
Komorn claims prosecutors influence the state lab to misreport results so they can get more convictions.
“What is unique about this case is they are relying on the lab to report these substances so they can escalate these crimes from misdemeanors to felonies,” said Komorn.
A former lab director says Komorn’s claims are true.
“So it was in my experience, it was just a nonstop political game that really got frustrating and it wore down the morale of our staff, and quite honestly it wore me down,” said John Collins, a former lab director.
Collins quit his job as director of the state lab after he says he was pressured to produce results that favored the prosecution.
“Our laboratories are not in the prosecution business, they’re not in the conviction business, they’re in the science business,” said Collins.
The Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Association is denying those claims from Lorincz and his attorney.
As for Max Lorincz, he’s now off the hook. A judge dismissed the felony charge, saying there was no evidence to prove the hash oil was synthetic.
Lorincz and his wife are reunited with their son.
“It’s like a hundred pounds has been lifted off my chest,” said Lorincz. “It’s like our entire life was put on hold the entire time he was gone.
“We’ll try and have as many positive memories as we can to make up the gap but there’s definitely nothing that makes up for the time that we lost, that’s for sure,” said Lorincz.
Misreporting test results, collusion with prosecutors to turn misdemeanors into felonies.
LANSING – Formal complaints have been filed in federal court against the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory by criminal defense attorneys who want an independent investigation into the lab’s practices and policies. A series of emails, revealed by FOIA request, illuminate the lab’s “abhorrent and illegal” compromise of scientific method to alter test results from marijuana products in a way that favors prosecutors- changes that were initiated by state drug task forces and the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.
Attorney Michael Komorn, who filed Civil Rights and formal complaints to the federal government over the Michigan State Police Crime Lab scandal
“Our formal letter of complaint is intended to launch a serious and objective review of practices of the Crime Lab by the National Institute of Justice,” said Neil Rockind of Southfield, Michigan’s Rockind Law in a press release jointly issued with Michael Komorn of Southfield’s Komorn Law.
The letter was filed with the Director of the National Institute of Justice, Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences in Washington, D.C. It specifically cites “negligence and incompetence resulting in Crime Lab findings, integrity and reliability that are in serious doubt,” the press release revealed.
Attorney Michael Nichols of the Nichols Law Firm from East Lansing, Michigan, also filed a letter of complaint with the same agency on the same day, December 22.
“Under Michigan law, all marijuana plant-based cannabinoids and the flowers, oils and edibles containing them are controlled as “marihuana” and the possession of these is a Schedule 1 misdemeanor,” Komorn wrote in a special to The Compassion Chronicles. “Only the possession of synthetic, laboratory manufactured cannabinoids is a Schedule 1 felony.”
Synthetic cannabinoids were made illegal in Michigan in 2013 by the state legislature in response to the rise of products like bath salts and Spice/K2, drugs that induced wild and sometimes fatal side effects in users. Those laboratory substances are not included in nor were they ever part of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA). Despite the illegality of the possession of plant-based edibles and oils under an Appellate Court interpretation of the MMMA, those medicines are regularly used by the 180,000 patients and caregivers registered in the medical program.
“What recently uncovered emails reveal is that the AG’s office, the prosecutor’s union, and the drug task forces pressured the lab to report marijuana edibles as a Schedule 1 synthetic felony THC,” Komorn said. “Mr. Ken Stecker of PAAM and the AG’s office prompted the change… pressure also came from the drug task forces so as to better establish probable cause to arrest marijuana patients and forfeit their assets.”
Asset forfeiture by police agencies in Michigan has become such a problem that the state legislature passed a sizable bill package of reforms, which were signed into law by the Governor in 2015. Komorn says 40% of the Crime Lab work is devoted to marijuana testing; marijuana cases turn up forfeiture dollars more frequently than methamphetamine, heroin or other drug cases.
The lab-related emails reveal there was broad opposition among lab scientists and administrators to the new reporting standard, and one employee quit his job at the lab in protest. In one email, Forensic Science Division Controlled Substance Unit Supervisor Bradley Choate said, “For the laboratory to contribute to this possible miscarriage of justice would be a huge black eye for the division and the department.”
Komorn filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the US Department of Justice against two of the Crime Lab’s Directors on December 11 on behalf of his client, Max Lorincz, alleging continued violations of rights in lab actions dating from 2013.
“There is nothing worse in a forensic scientist than ‘confirmation bias,’” said MSP Crime Lab Director Gregoire Michaud, during a presentation to a Criminal Advocacy Program, as quoted by Komorn. Michaud is one of the Crime Lab officials named in the civil rights complaint.
Rockind notes that the collusion between scientists and prosecutors “is antithetical to independent and objective forensic reporting.”
In a recent interview , Komorn said, “The idea that the police and the lab and the prosecutors are all intertwined and they are one side of the team versus the defendant is inherently a conflict.”
Nichols wrote in his letter : “The problem is the interference of the prosecuting attorneys association with the reporting of scientific results. It reflects a culture that the lab and its analysts are not scientists reporting forensic analyses dispassionately in court through testimony.”
Both the Komorn/Rockind and Nichols complaints cite other issues with the Crime Lab, including under-reporting of the uncertainty factor of blood alcohol testing.
Federal action became necessary when defense attorneys discovered that the entity registered with the National Institute of Justice to oversee allegations of negligence or misconduct at the State Police Crime Lab is the State Police themselves. As documented by Fox 17 in Lansing, the Internal Investigations unit at the MSP saw no problem with the activities at their sister agency.
Specifically, Fox 17 quotes the MSP representative as saying, “ An internal policy change does not constitute misconduct or negligence. Therefore, no investigation is underway … the MSP does not consider your reports on a debate among colleagues prior to an internal policy decision to rise to the level of an allegation of misconduct.”
Despite their denials to media about their concerns over the crime Lab story, internal emails from the MSP itself reveal a great deal of discussion on the issue and media coverage of it. Attorney Nichols used FOIA to reveal a 159-page email chain regarding the prosecutors/lab scandal and the fallout from it- initiated by the same MSP Public Relations representative that claimed they had no interest in the issue.
Rockind and Komorn are not filing a federal lawsuit at this time, per the press release. The National Institute of Justice has not yet responded to the formal complaint.
The Michigan lesson is one activists and attorneys from other states should note. Monitoring the procedures and relationships formed at and by each state’s forensic services is crucial to ensuring the integrity of the judicial process.
Komorn has been documenting the evolution of the case in a blog on his law firm’s website. A summary of these articles is included below.
Rick Thompson was the Editor in Chief for the entire 2-year run of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, was the spokesman for the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers and is the current Editor and Lead Blogger for The Compassion Chronicles. Rick has addressed committees in both the House and Senate.
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