| Cheri Sicard/Facebook |
| Joe Grumbine — who has fought so hard for the right of California medical marijuana patients to safely access their medicine — has been thrown back in jail |
California medical marijuana defendant and activist Joe Grumbine was put in handcuffs and hauled off to jail at what was supposed to be a short scheduling hearing in court on Tuesday.
According to Cheri Sicard, who works with The Human Solution, a medical marijuana patient advocacy/court support group formed by Grumbine, the prosecutor brought up a traffic stop that happened in Riverside, Calif., a few months ago.
| Cannabis Cheri/Facebook |
| Grumbine had cannabis in his possession — an amount he is legally allowed to have as a patient — according to Cheri Sicard, above, a fellow member of advocacy/court support group The Human Solution |
Grumbine had cannabis in his possession (an amount he is legally allowed to have as a patient), according to Sicard.
Judge Arthur Jean promptly rejected Grumbine’s current bail, then upped it to $250,000 — more than Riverside County recommends for child molesters, kidnappers and rapists — and remanded him into custody.
Grumbine’s legal battle began when he and Joe Byron were arrested for operating a medical cannabis dispensary in Southern California. The case attracted worldwide attention — make that horror and disbelief — for judicial and jury misconduct and prejudice.
The first trial was so flagrantly bad that Long Beach Superior Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani granted a motion for a new trial.
“This was a terrible, terrible trial,” Judge Comparet-Cassani said. “I read the transcript and I am appalled.”
The judge also said she was “speechless” at the judicial and jury misconduct, adding that the misconduct started at the preliminary hearing and “continued throughout the trial.”
There were many instances when Judge Charles Sheldon (the judge in the original trial) would never rule on an objection and simply continue with the proceedings, according to Sicard, who attended the trial. “There were so many cases of this I just stopped counting,” Judge Comparet-Cassani said at the retrial hearing in April.
Grumbine’s next hearing is scheduled for November 27. He remains in jail in the meantime.
“Please mark your calendars,” Sicard said. “We need to PACK that courtroom.”