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Medical Marijuana Grower Finds No Relief In Federal Law Change, Alleged Leader Of Kent County Operation On Trial


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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man charged in a marijuana grow operation hoped to have charges dismissed based on a new law preventing federal funds being used to go after legitimate medical-marijuana growers in states where it is legal.

He failed.

Meanwhile, the leader of the alleged group, Betty Jenkins, who police say had grow operations at homes on Forest Hill Avenue SE, Alden Nash Road in Lowell Township, Belding and two four-unit apartments in Gaines Township, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo.

Adam Rumpf disputed allegations he failed to comply with the state’s medical marijuana law. He said that a federal spending bill signed by President Barack Obama last month “blocks the Department of Justice from prosecuting medical marijuana patients that abide by state laws, now making this an illegal prosecution.”

Acting as his own attorney, he filed a brief saying he sought legal advice that “left the defendant to believe, that a prosecution in this (manner) is unlawful under the Constitution of The United States. The defendant further points to the fact that even the President of the United States of America has said the people, such as the defendant, will be left alone by the government so long as they reside in a state that allows this behavior.”

Rumpf did not get far.

He eventually pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises, a potential 20-year offense.

“Nothing in this legislation has in any way undermined the prosecution of the defendant in this case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Courtade said.

 

 

 

The prosecution of Adam Rumpf is not an attempt by the Department of Justice to prevent the State of Michigan from implementing its own law. The government has not sought declaratory or injunctive relief nor does this prosecution stand in the way of Michigan vigorously enforcing its law. Moreover … (medical marijuana law) offers no defense to this federal prosecution even if defendant had been found in full compliance with the state law, which he was not.”

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney said the spending bill governs funding for the Department of Justice but has no effect on federal drug laws or the court’s jurisdiction over such prosecutions.

“Thus, the spending bill does not (make) this now an illegal prosecution' as defendant asserts, nor does it make compliance or noncompliance with the (medical marijuana law) relevant to this prosecution.”

Marijuana advocates hailed the medical-marijuana provision in the spending bill as a “historic” measure.

"This is truly a long-fought victory for medical marijuana patients who have lived in fear of being caught in the crossfire of conflicting state and federal laws for nearly two decades," Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access said earlier.

In a plea agreement, Rumpf admitted he used a vacant apartment on Gaines Street to grow marijuana. He said that Jenkins and Phillip Joseph Walsh, who is also on trial in Kalamazoo, paid to install equipment, maintain the manufacturing operation and sell any harvested marijuana. He agreed that 132 plants and 3.5 pounds of processed marijuana were found.

Among the witnesses who have testified for the prosecution during the first two days of trial is Dr. Gregory Kudanek, who certified patients for use of medical marijuana despite not meeting all of them. He pleaded guilty to manufacturing fewer than 50 marijuana plants and forfeited property near Slayton Lake in Belding.

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C'mon Feds! Beat on them a little more! Get your last licks in before marijuana goes legal! You have enjoyed this activity, and profited from it, for a very long time. I understand that it is hard to let go of beliefs that are almost religious in nature, but even your bosses are beginning to question some commonly held beliefs about marijuana. When will it be your time to loosen up a little and let the dust around legalized marijuana settle before you continue your crusade?

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either operating several grow houses and selling mass quantities of marijuana and certifying patients without ever meeting them

and testifying against those whom you certify- is either good for our movement, or its bad for our movement, voter intended, or not. this crew stinks of pooh to me

 

 

Pictures of the doctor who testified against his patient are here; http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/30/medical-marijuana/18208101/

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) - A Grand Rapids doctor indicted in a major marijuana conspiracy admitted he wrote medical marijuana prescriptions for patients he never met to help further a criminal enterprise that earned more than $1.3 million in less than two years.

 

Although Dr. Gregory A. Kuldanek was not a leader in the conspiracy, his role was integral to the operation, he told U.S. District Court Magistrate Phillip Green during a 90-minute plea hearing Thursday.

 

"My intention was not to profit from the sale of marijuana,'' Kuldanek said before pleading guilty to a marijuana conspiracy charge. The 57-year-old physician remains free on bond pending sentencing in March.

 

Thursday's plea came just hours before the U.S. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids filed a 23-page superseding indictment charging four more people in the 2 ½-year conspiracy. That brings to 10 the number of people charged as part of a year-long investigation into illegal grow operations in Kent County.

 

At the head of the conspiracy is Betty Lee Jenkins and her partner, Phillip Joseph Walsh, investigators allege. Both were charged Thursday in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants and maintaining drug-involved premises.

 

Kuldanek, a respected internal medicine specialist who formerly worked at East Paris Internal Medicine Associates PC, said he's known Jenkins for more than two years. That affiliation proved to be his undoing.

 

Jenkins is a licensed medical marijuana caregiver whom Kuldanek said he believed to be a compassionate woman providing medical marijuana to patients suffering debilitating medical conditions.

 

Police see her differently. The Kent Area Narcotics Enforcement Team had been investigating her and Walsh for conspiring to grow marijuana and multiple locations in Kent County. Under Michigan's medical marijuana law, caregivers can have up to five patients, with marijuana production capped at 12 plants per patient.

 

 

Betty Lee Jenkins charged with heading marijuana conspiracy

Betty Lee Jenkins charged with heading marijuana conspiracy involving hundreds of plants(Photo: Kent County Jail)

 

Given that restriction, Jenkins "would have no reason for bringing Kuldanek the dozens and dozens of patient certifications she had asked him to sign over time,'' federal prosecutors charged.

 

Even after her arrest in November, Jenkins continued recruiting medical marijuana patients to bolster business, the government says. Police obtained a search warrant for two cellphones found inside her 2006 Jeep Liberty during a July 2 traffic stop.

 

The search of outgoing and incoming calls is part of an ongoing investigation to determine if others are involved in illegal marijuana distribution, records in 63rd District Court show.

 

Kuldanek wrote medical marijuana prescriptions for his own patients but "it extended slowly over time,'' he testified. "I was screening more patients and not seeing these patients. They would recruit people for certification.''

 

He admitted to writing prescriptions for more than 60 people, sometimes meeting them at restaurants so he could hand out multiple prescriptions at once.

 

"Without the clients, they would not be able to develop a network to grow marijuana,'' Kuldanek said. "My intention was not to profit from the sale of marijuana.''

 

He said he based his fee on a patient's circumstances and ability to pay, never charging more than $100 for a medical marijuana prescription.

 

With Thursday's plea, Kuldanek could have his medical license suspended or revoked.

 

He agreed to forfeit his home on Seven Mile Road NE north of Slayton Lake in Kent County's Grattan Township. The government has also started forfeiture proceedings against other homes and properties it says are tied to the conspiracy.

 

Kuldanek faces up to five years in federal prison, but that is unlikely given his cooperation with investigators, his clean record and standing in the community.

 

A trial date for Jenkins and her confederates is pending.

 

Editors Note: A previous version of this story stated that Kuldanek works with East Paris Internal Medicine Associates PC. The practice says Kuldanek ceased any and all involvement with East Paris Internal Medicine on June 25th, 2014.

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Why does a dr have to see a patient?  It's all in the records.  If it says you have chrohn's why do you have to talk to the patient?  Seems like another entrapment case to me.  Second guessing a drs. rec on an non-toxic med?  I guess they would've rather them see him and have him prescribe opiates?

 

I'm so sick of the term Med MJ conspiracy.  Are they talking about the patient or the raid?  Cause I see the conspiracy lies with LEO and Judges and politicians.

Edited by Norby
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