OAKLAND, CA – Dozens of supporters packed the small Oakland courtroom of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken yesterday for a hearing in the government’s case against four medical marijuana candymakers.
In front of this crowd, Michael “Mickey” Martin pled guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to manufacture a mixture or substance containing a detectible amount of marijuana. His business, now called Compassion Medicinal Edibles, operated as Tainted Incorporated during most of the two-year period that it was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The business sold its marijuana-laced edibles to medical dispensaries, which in turn supplied them to patients who presented a physician’s approval as required under California’s Compassionate Use Act. But, given the federal prohibition on marijuana, state law didn’t protect Tainted Inc. when government agencies began sniffing around the business. According to the DEA, marijuana is uniformly illegal.
“Tainting candy and other products with marijuana is not sweet – it is criminal,” DEA Special Agent Javier Pena announced following the raid. On the federal level, marijuana is currently designated as a controlled substance with a high potential for addiction and no medicinal applications.
The supporters who packed the courtroom yesterday clearly disagree with this classification. Many of them are walking testimonials to the healing properties of marijuana, and, outside the courtroom, all of them voiced their sense of injustice over the prosecution of the Tainted Inc. defendants. Even Martin’s infant son, who had been cooing and grinning before court came to order, began to cry in the gallery when his father went forward to make his change of plea.
Michael Martin with defense attorney Sara Zalkin
A family man, Martin had earnestly contemplated the fate of his wife and children when deciding whether or not to take the plea deal. If convicted at trial, he would have faced a sentence of at least a decade in prison and been forced to watch from behind bars as his two young sons grew up without him.
Yesterday’s change of plea hearing came exactly six months after the federal raid on Tainted Inc., which was carried out by the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration, along with assistance from local police agencies. Martin and three other employees were targeted in the bust, which also included searches of their homes. The three employees were arrested at the time of the raid, but Martin, who happened to be on vacation with his family at the time, was declared to be a fugitive. He returned at once to surrender himself to federal authorities, and, like his co-defendants, he was quickly released on bail.
Martin dressed in a santa suit
What followed was a series of delays for the arraignment, which was moved off the court calendar several times over a period of five months. These postponements gave Martin the opportunity to hold press conferences instead, at which he passionately addressed groups of activists gathered in the plaza of the federal building. During a rally last December, he donned a Santa suit and sang Christmas carols for the throngs at the courthouse.
But once the arraignment finally happened, the mood of the case sobered up again. On February 26th, 2008, Michael Anderson and Diallo McLinn pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges, but Martin and co-defendant Jessica Sanders were hit with far more weighty felony counts.
Sanders, who was employed at Tainted Inc. only briefly, worked as a receptionist taking orders for the business. She now faces four years in prison and a $250,000
Defendant Jessica Sanders at the Oakland Court
fine for using a telephone to facilitate the distribution of a controlled substance. “I can’t believe this is happening to me,” Sanders said yesterday. “I worked there for less than a year.” Commenting that she is ready for the ordeal to be over, Sanders indicated that she may accept a plea agreement at a hearing next week.
Martin had hoped to negotiate his own plea deal so that the government would agree to drop the case against Sanders, but the U.S. Attorney was unwilling to concede. Instead, the deal he has accepted puts him in a guideline sentencing range that hovers at just around three years in prison. Martin expects the judge to go under this guideline, but has no idea how low she will go. “We hope for an Ed Rosenthal decision,” he said optimistically. “One day, time served.”
Whether Judge Wilken will grant such a wish is anybody’s guess, but it’s clear she will have an entire community urging her to do so. It would have been impossible for her to fail to notice the physical show of support for the defendant yesterday, as every gallery pew in her courtroom was packed tight and full. Seeming unruffled by the full house, she was all business during Martin’s hearing and proceeded directly down the line of requisite questions for a change of plea. After establishing the defendant’s age and educational background, she confirmed that he was satisfied with his attorneys, that he had not been coerced into the deal, and that he understood the rights he was giving up…especially those of a grand jury indictment and the appeal of the case.
Although these are the standard inquiries a judge must make before accepting a guilty plea, Martin said afterwards that it seemed as though the judge was trying to talk him out of his decision. That sense was, perhaps, a manifestation of his sincere belief that he has done no wrong, or a machination of the conscience of a man who has accepted guilt when he knows himself to be innocent. Nonetheless, Martin answered each of the judge’s questions with poise and self-assurance, rarely betraying any signs of doubt or indecision. Similarly, to the plain observer, Judge Wilken appeared to be exhibiting no detectible personal reactions whatsoever.
J. Tony Serra, Martin's Defense Attorney
The judge listened blankly as the prosecutor rattled off the facts of the case, which detailed the history of Tainted Inc. from its origins as a truffle-making operation and its blossoming into a full-fledged business that manufactured marijuana-laced parodies of popular mainstream candybars: “Buddafinger, Reefer’s and Kief Kat,” for example. Although Martin had discontinued these parodies before the raid, the government’s summary made no mention of that finding. It also, quite predictably, omitted the fact that these products were destined for legitimate medical use under state law. Nevertheless, defense attorneys J. Tony Serra and Sara Zalkin will certainly make these circumstances known to the judge before the sentence is decided.
In accepting the plea deal, Martin also took responsibility for a marijuana grow discovered at an address on 38th Street in Oakland. His guilty plea required him to admit that he oversaw the cultivation and that this grow was part of the conspiracy to produce marijuana-laced foods. When it came time for the final words to be uttered and the acceptance of guilt to be formalized, Martin appeared ready.
“With a heavy heart, Your Honor, I do,” he said, showing the first signs of his inner conflict as he looked up at the judge solemnly.
The sentencing date was then promptly set, and Martin was whisked away to pre-trial services for the interview that will serve as part of the sentencing report. Judge Wilken then called the next case on her calendar, but she was met with a delay instead – the bustle of nearly forty people leaving the courtroom at once was quite a distraction, and the proceedings were at a conspicuous standstill during this mass departure. The message it sent was unambiguous: a community stands behind this man, and they wait with him solidly to see whether he will be given true justice or only a cruel substitute.
Jessica Sanders is due back in court on April 2nd, 2008, at 2:30pm. Michael “Mickey” Martin is scheduled for sentencing on July 2nd, 2008, at 2:30pm.
Both appearances will be in front of Judge Claudia Wilken at 1301 Clay Street in Oakland, CA.
Visit the FREE TAINTED WEBSITE to read Michael's blog and support their defense fund
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