This just in..
Aloha friends…We just want to alert you to alert you to
a rally next Wednesday,
August 18th at 3:30pm starting at the Hilo Bandstand
“Free the Green 14…Freedom of Religion…Freedom of Speech…Free the Earth…Free the Political Prisoners…Free Roger Christie”
August 5, 2010 – Roger Christie of the THC Ministry denied bail:
While the other 13 members of the ‘Green 14′ have been released, Roger Christie is still in jail and has been refused bail. Here is the order regarding Roger Christie’s appeal for bail to date:
Filed order (EDWARD LEAVY, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS and SIDNEY R. THOMAS) 08/05/2010:
“This is an appeal from the district court’s pretrial detention order denying bail. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3145(c) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Appellant’s motion to strike is denied. We review the district court’s factual findings concerning the danger that appellant poses to the community under a “deferential, clearly erroneous standard.” United States v. Hir, 517 F.3d 1081, 1086 (9th Cir. 2008) (quoting United States v.Townsend, 897 F.2d 989, 994 (9th Cir. 1990)). The conclusions based on such factual findings, however, present a mixed question of fact and law. Hir, 517 F.3d at 1086. Thus, “the question of whether the district court’s factual determinations justify the pretrial detention order is reviewed de novo.” Id. at 1086-87 (citations omitted). The district court correctly found that the government has met its burden of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that “no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure . . . the safety of . . . the community,” 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e), and that appellant therefore poses a danger to the community. See Hir, 517 F.3d at 1094. We therefore affirm the district court’s pretrial detention order. AFFIRMED.[7429850] (WL)”
In summary, it looks like, without a review of the asserted opinion that Reverend Roger Christie poses a “threat to society”, there can be no review of his case and an overturning of the decision to hold him in jail until his trial. See below for commentary on the case from someone following this case (and others like it):
- Once again, as in USA v Quaintance, we see the Courts of Appeals refusing to review ”findings” of the District Court under their “deferential, clearly erroneous standard.” This is a standard that is IMPOSSIBLE to meet. WITH THE APPEALS COURTS APPLYING THIS STANDARD, IT IS FUTILE TO HOPE FOR ANY JUSTICE FROM THEM.
- An appellate court must accept the lower court’s findings of fact unless upon review the appellate court is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Sawyer v. Whitley, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 22, n.14 (1992). ‘If the district court’s account of the evidence is plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety, the court of appeals may not reverse it even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.‘ Anderson v. Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 73-4 (1985).
Here is the latest news in our community.. 14 people arrested on July 9 by Federal Agents for alleged ‘conspiracy’ to supply marijuana…
Go here to our latest posts to find out more about what has been developing on this..
Headline about Rev. Roger Christie THC Ministry Founder
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This story was published last week in the Star Advertiser on July 25, 2010:
Big Island marijuana advocate Roger Christie, his partner, two employees of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry and 10 people who allegedly supplied marijuana for the ministry are facing federal marijuana manufacturing, possession and distribution charges…
A federal grand jury returned a secret indictment last month against Christie, Sherryanne L. St. Cyr, Susanne Lenore Friend, Timothy M. Mann, Richard Bruce Turpen, Wesley Mark Sudbury, Donald James Gibson, Roland Gregory Ignacio, Perry Emilio Policicchio, John DeBaptist Bouey III, Michael B. Shapiro, Aaron George Zeeman, Victoria C. Fiore and Jessica R. Walsh.
A federal judge unsealed the indictment yesterday. The U.S. attorney scheduled a news conference for this afternoon.
The indictment charges the defendants with possessing as few as two marijuana plants to as many as 1,108 plants. It also seeks the forfeiture of $21,494 that county and federal law enforcement officials seized in a raid of the ministry’s downtown Hilo offices, and from Christie’s Hilo apartment and Big Island property owned by Turpen, Ignacio and Policicchio.
Christie and St. Cyr manufactured, distributed and sold marijuana at the ministry assisted by ministry employees Fiore and Friend, according to the indictment. Christie also allegedly recruited Friend and Mann to start up a marijuana cultivation operation for the ministry.
By July 22, 2009, the operation had 284 marijuana plants under cultivation, the indictment said.
The indictment also charges Turpen with manufacturing and possessing with the intent to distribute 1,108 marijuana plants; Sudbury, 856 plants; Gibson, 152 plants; Ignacio, 80 plants; Policicchio, 72 plants; Bouey, 26 plants; and Shapiro, two plants.
Maximum penalties range from up to five years for distributing or possessing any amount of marijuana to up to life in prison for distributing or possessing more than 1,000 marijuana plants.
After Hawaii County police officers and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Internal Revenue Service raided his home and ministry March 10, Christie said he did not mind the experience if that was what it took to be declared legitimate.
He said he filed papers with the IRS declaring himself the minister of THC Ministry and was confident the government was going to clear him and return the money and records seized in the raids. (THC is also the abbreviation for tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana.)
Christie said he uses marijuana while providing sacrament. The THC website says the cultivation and enjoyment of cannabis is a fundamental human right provided by God and protected by the First Amendment.
State law allows a person who has a physician’s certification to possess and use marijuana to treat a debilitating condition.
Welcome to the Peaceful Sky Alliance Website!
(to go to our regularly updated posts .. look for the NEWS tab above.)
We promise to post more information about these two opportunities to speak out about Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance!
Congratulations to David Moreno, just back from his win in Oahu.. Thanks for Supporting Peaceful Sky Alliance David! Keep us posted on your next fight.
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Happy April Fools Day..
Chief Justice Ronald Moon (left) and Judge Ibarra (right) help to open the new Judiciary Building on April Fools Day last year
We couldn’t let this day go by without marking the first anniversary of the ‘new’ Judiciary Building on Kilauea Avenue. To mark this occasion we have also republished an article (below) that appeared in 2008 in the Honolulu Advertiser regarding statistics showing a high rate of incarceration we are seeing in Hawaii. While this article was published nearly 18 months ago, it still seems very relevant to the problems we are seeing. We here at Peaceful Sky Alliance would like to see fewer people incarcerated and we’d like to see the financial burdens and huge social costs of jailing people reduced. We think changes to outmoded and unworkable drug policies (especially where ‘Adult Personal Use’ of Cannabis is concerned) would be an excellent beginning.
The Hilo Judiciary Complex was touted as a significant improvement to the Judiciary’s existing facilities in Hilo because it consolidates all court operations in East Hawaii into a single efficient, secure, modern courthouse, thereby greatly enhancing public safety and service. The $91.7 million, three-story building, housing seven general-purpose courtrooms, two family courtrooms, a law library, holding cells, witness rooms, attorney interview rooms, a courtyard and various offices, was officially opened and dedicated a year ago.
Hawaii Incarceration Rate Proves Costly…
By Meda Chesney-Lind and Marilyn Brown - Honolulu Advertiser November 7, 2008
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The U.S. has the dubious distinction of leading the world in terms of incarceration.
What about our own state? Hawai’i now incarcerates more than 6,000 inmates. That is up from 5,053 in 2000 — a 20 percent increase just since the turn of the century. Between 2000 and the end of 2006, Hawai’i's prison population increased by 2.8 percent a year, far surpassing the national average increase of 1.7 percent.
Over-representation of people of color in the U.S. prison system has long been a problem. More than 60 percent of those in prison are racial and ethnic minorities. Here in Hawai’i, Native Hawaiians are over-represented in youth and adult prison populations.
Native Hawaiians account for about 20 percent of Hawai’i's population. Yet a profile of youth at the Hawai’i Youth Correctional Facility in 1999 revealed that 52.6 percent of the boys and 63.2 percent of the girls in custody at HYCF were Native Hawaiian. This over-representation is reflected in the adult inmate population, with roughly 40 percent of inmates being Native Hawaiian.
Many Native Hawaiians in prison have been imprisoned before. Only about a third of Native Hawaiians doing time are there for the first time; this means that two-thirds of Native Hawaiians in prison are there on subsequent incarcerations.
What’s happening?
Research conducted in Hawai’i on those released on parole in 1996 and followed for two to three years found that more than half were returned to custody (53.9 percent). Only a quarter of those returned were returned for new crimes. This means that three quarters were returned for technical violations of parole (often a failed drug test).
One other significant point: Recent research on Hawai’i's inmate classification system by the Criminal Justice Institute suggests that many of Hawai’i's inmates, male and female, are technically “over-classified” which means they are being held in costly facilities, some thousands of miles from their homes and families, unnecessarily.
According to the Criminal Justice Institute, “approximately 60 percent of nonviolent inmates on the Mainland are minimum- or community-custody” and could be housed in minimum- or community-custody beds. Significantly, Hawai’i has approximately a third of our 6,000 inmates in Mainland prisons.
Let us not forget cost in this discussion. Incarceration does not come cheap. Corrections budgets have long been the fastest growing segment of state budgets. Taxpayers are paying an estimated $40 billion a year for prisons. Feeding and caring for an inmate costs about $20,000 a year on average, with construction costs running about $100,000 per cell. The Pew Center on the States noted that between 1987 and 2007, the amount that states spent on corrections doubled. A 29-month sentence for a drug offender in Hawai’i can cost taxpayers more than $113,000.
There are clear trade-offs here. As the Pew study documents, higher education has been a clear loser. Between 1987 and 2007, corrections budgets rose by 127 percent while higher education funding increased by only 21 percent. Colleges and universities, in turn, passed the cost of higher education along in the form of steep tuition increases. Consider that the University of Hawai’i-Manoa increased its tuition 20 percent for both in-state and out-of-state students in 2006, giving us the dubious distinction of having the highest tuition increase of any public university in the nation in that year.
Generally, the public does not link corrections costs and college tuitions, but they should, because every dollar spent on cells is taking money from other important government services, including access to an affordable public university education.
The nation also loses in this trade-off. At a time when our country needs to invest in education for our citizens to face the challenges of a new century, college educations have become increasingly unaffordable for average families.
What can be done to reduce mass incarceration in Hawai’i? Like 18 other states that have rolled back mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, Hawai’i can start by repealing mandatory minimum sentences for crystal meth and shifting resources to drug treatment; we should also revitalize probation and parole so that drug offenders are directed to treatment after relapse rather than prison. Hawai’i should also implement provisions of the Community Safety Act, passed in 2007, to prevent ex-inmate recidivism by providing reintegration programming Repealing bad laws and energizing promising policy initiatives is a good start at finally getting smart about crime in Hawai’i.
Meda Chesney-Lind is a criminologist with the University of Hawai’i- Manoa. Marilyn Brown is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Hawai’i- Hilo. The views expressed here are their own. They wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
Budget hearings this week!
Demand budgetary restraint for Public Safety and more accountability! Ask this County to implement Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance!
Consider coming to testify 9 am tomorrow morning (Monday March 29) -or at the other Council Finance Committee sessions concerning the budget on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. see here.. for more details on the issues..
Mayor Kenoi will be presenting his budget to Council Finance Committee Monday at 9am March 29, 2010 and public testimony is welcomed at this time.
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Mahalo to the Big Island Weekly for this great story. Good luck to David Moreno in his fight on Saturday. Mahalo David for your support of the Peaceful Sky Alliance.
David Moreno is a champion for Sustainable Future for Hawaii and a champion for the Peaceful Sky Alliance and the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance in Hawaii County.
To see the story Big Island Weekly published go to our NEWS post here:
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Saturday March 13, 2010
We are aware that more raids occurred today March 13, in Puna and other districts. Anyone with information about raids that have occurred are encouraged to contact Peaceful Sky Alliance.
Mahalo and Aloha.
Thursday March 11, 2010
We are aware that numerous raids by the DEA have occurred on March 10, 2010. No public comment has been provided by the US Attorney’s office or local law enforcement officials.
We have it confirmed that at least one of the raids was of a household that had a number of plants within the limits of Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance (LLEPCO).
Anyone with information about raids occurring on March 10, 2010 are asked to please contact Peaceful Sky Alliance.
Mahalo!
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This in the news today: Feds raid Hilo cannabis ministry
Image of the THC Ministry published by Hawaii Tribune-Herald
by John Burnett
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
‘No comment’ from U.S. Attorney
Federal agents raided the downtown Hilo sanctuary of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry Wednesday morning, assisted by local police.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Muehleck said that no one had yet been arrested or charged in connection with the raid. Reached shortly before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, he declined to provide other details and would not say whether THC Ministry director and founder Roger Christie had been detained.
“There’s gonna be no comment from our office talking about anything that’s occurred in Hilo or on the Island of Hawaii at this point,” said Muehleck.
The door to the ministry’s upstairs space at 94 Kamehameha Ave. was locked at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. A sign next to the door said that the ministry is open from 2-5 p.m. weekdays.
Jared Fischer, 29, of Hilo, who was outside the ministry’s entrance, said it was unusual for the door to be locked during posted business hours.
“I’m totally upset,” said Fischer, who said he’s a church member and uses cannabis as a sacrament. He said he tried calling the ministry’s phone and was surprised that nobody answered.
He said he’d heard “the (Drug Enforcement Administration) busted Roger Christie.” Fischer said that he was not at THC Ministry headquarters at the time, but heard “it happened sometime before noon.”
A call to THC Ministry’s cell phone triggered a message that said that Christie’s voice mail was full and could not take messages. Nor did Christie respond to a message left on a land line in time for this story.
“I guess that’ll put an end to the dispensary,” said the manager of a neighboring business, who asked not to be identified. “I’m all for live-and-let-live … but I think that the presence of (THC Ministry) just as you enter downtown Hilo sends the wrong message to people who come here.”
The businessman said he saw local police arrive at about 10 a.m. and federal authorities about an hour later.
He said there is usually a line “like clockwork” at 2 p.m. when the ministry’s door opens.
The Web site imedicalcannabis.org lists THC Ministry as a “collective” or “cooperative” dispensary of medical marijuana. The Web site indicates that “flowers” — another name for the bud of the female marijuana plant — are offered, with on-site medicating available, and cash payment accepted.
While Hawaii has a law allowing the use of medical marijuana, the sale of marijuana is illegal under any circumstances and dispensaries are not allowed, although the state Senate has passed and sent to the House a bill to allow medical marijuana dispensaries. The measure was introduced by Sens. Will Espero, Robert Bunda, J. Kalani English, Brickwood Galuteria and Josh Green, all Democrats. Green is a physician from Kona.
The bill, if passed, would levy a $30 per ounce tax on medical marijuana, and would bring in an estimated $50 million yearly to depleted state coffers. It’s scheduled for a hearing before the House Health and Public Safety committees at 10:45 a.m. today in House conference room 209 at the state Capitol Building in Honolulu.
THC Ministry’s Web site makes no mention of its downtown Hilo sanctuary being a medical marijuana dispensary. The site proclaims: “Cultivation and enjoyment of Cannabis sacrament is a fundamental human right provided by God and protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” The site further states: “We provide a legitimate religious ‘defense to prosecution’ for sincere practitioners over 21 years old.”
The site lists the Hilo sanctuary as the “home ministry,” with branches in Los Angeles, Bozeman, Mont., and Boulder, Colo.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday night that a Colorado man who claims membership in THC Ministry was convicted of misdemeanor possession of marijuana, plus possessing drug paraphernalia and driving an unregistered vehicle.
Trevor Douglas of Avon, Colo., argued that he shouldn’t be convicted on drug charges because marijuana serves the same role in his religion as communion wine in Christianity. The judge didn’t buy it, and he was fined $450 plus court costs and ordered to serve 15 hours of community service.
Clear Creek County Judge Rachel J. Olguin-Fresquez said that Douglas’s beliefs don’t rise to the level of religion.
Christie wrote a letter to Olguin-Fresquez, dated Monday, confirming that Douglas is “a member in good standing of the THC Ministry.” Christie wrote that Douglas “is searching for higher meaning in his life and has deep questions about his place in the Universe and his quest for God. The plant Cannabis helps him further his knowledge and his quest for spiritual attainment.”
It’s not known if Douglas’s conviction in Colorado is connected with the Hilo raid of THC Ministry headquarters.
Christie has also sponsored one-day seminars called “cannabis college” in a street level space in the Moses Building, most recently last Saturday. “Your $100 donation will include classes, great teachers and a catered hemp seed lunch,” the ministry Web site said.
An announcement sent to the Tribune-Herald read, in part: “Some of the best cannabis growers on the Big Island will demonstrate their techniques for growing the highest quality medicine and sacrament. The classes will include lighting, cloning, fertilizing, harvesting, and curing.”
Christie is a director of the Peaceful Sky Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group that wrote a ballot initiative passed into law by 53 percent of Big Island voters in November, making adult personal use of marijuana on private property the “lowest law-enforcement priority.”
March 11, 2010
The Peaceful Sky Alliance is an organization dedicated to implementation of the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance (LLEPCO).
THC Ministry founder Roger Christie is a member of the Board of Peaceful Sky Alliance. The Peaceful Sky Alliance however, is not currently and has not been, involved in the activities and operations of the THC Ministry.
We understand that the THC Ministry has been subject to an investigation by federal agencies but we have no further information at this time.
The mission of Peaceful Sky Alliance is to provide oversight and to collaborate with the Hawai’i County Council, the Police and Prosecution, in the implementation of the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance; to advocate on behalf of Medical Marijuana Patients in Hawai’i County; to advocate for Cannabis policy reform at the state and federal level; and to continue educating Hawai’i residents regarding their rights under the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance.
Thanks to all who came out for ‘The Good Medicine Show 2 !’ We hosted 4 shows;
2 in Kona at the new LEAD theatre,
1 in Kalapana at Uncle Robert’s Kava bar
Here’s Clan Dyken playing at final show in Hilo at The Palace Theater:
