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Charges Dropped Against Boulder County Medical Marijuana CaregiverFor immediate release: October 15, 2009 Contact: Cannabis Therapy Institute Charges Dropped Against Boulder County Medical Marijuana Caregiver {Boulder, CO} - - On Thursday, Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett dropped the charges against 35-year-old pregnant caregiver, Sherri Versfelt of Nederland, CO, who had been scheduled for a jury trial next week. Sherri had been charged with felony marijuana crimes stemming from a raid on her house in July 2008. Sherri was serving as the caregiver for a patient with a debilitating medical condition. Sherri's case was set to go to trial Monday in Boulder District
Court. Rob Corry, Sherri's attorney, had a guest commentary printed
in Thursday's Boulder Daily Camera that discussed the atrocities
of her case. The Cannabis Therapy Institute posted a picture of her on their
website on Wednesday night, calling the persecution of the pregnant
caregiver a "Witch Hunt" and rallying supporters to her
trial.
The D.A. says that the prospects of bad publicity and public outrage
were not the reasons he dropped the charges, but prosecuting a pregnant
woman would have arguably been the biggest PR mistake the D.A.'s
office had made since the case of Jason Lauve. Jason was the D.A.'s
last medical marijuana prosecution, which resulted in a resounding
defeat for the D.A. when Jason was acquitted of all charges. Jason
participated in most of his trial in a wheelchair and received great
sympathy from his jury. A photo of him receiving a hug by one of
his jurors was on the front page of the Boulder Daily Camera the
next day and photos of him outside the courthouse with 34 ounces
of medicine spread across the Internet. The D.A. was widely criticized for wasting taxpayer resources on
the Lauve prosecution. To appease public opinion after Jason's victory,
Garnett campaigned in editorials and public meetings to become known
as the "the most progressive District Attorney in the state
on the issue of medical marijuana." Recently, Garnett pledged
to the Boulder County Commissioners that he was going to use "as
little of my office's resources in prosecution of marijuana cases
as we can." The Cannabis Therapy Institute is calling the dismissal of Sherri's charges a guarded victory for all Colorado patients. Despite Garnett's assurances that he was not waging a war on patients, the prosecution of Sherri Versfelt continued for over a year and wasted even more thousands of taxpayer dollars. "I hope that Stan Garnett continues to uphold the pledge he made after my acquittal that he wouldn't prosecute any more patients or dispensaries," says Jason Lauve, former medical marijuana defendant. "Sherri's prosecution went on for far too long. I hope that this teaches police and prosecutors to have more respect for patients' Constitutional rights and to keep them out of the court to begin with." Rob Corry is on a string of victories this week with medical marijuana
patients. On Tuesday, he liberated almost half a pound of medicinal
cannabis from the Colorado Springs Police Department on behalf of
patient Stephan Thomas who had the charges against him dropped as
well. See the story and video here:
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Cannabis Therapy Institute
P.O. Box 19084, Boulder, CO 80308
Phone: 877-420-4205
Web: www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com
Email: info@cannabistherapyinstitute.com
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