Press release from Cannabis Therapy Institute
{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. Perhaps the idea of the bad PR the case would have generated was a factor in the D.A.'s decision to drop the charges.
Rob Corry, Sherri's attorney, had a guest commentary printed in Thursday's Boulder Daily Camera that discussed the atrocities of her case.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13561481
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.
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/patients/sherri/
The D.A.'s last medical marijuana prosecution of patient Jason Lauve resulted in a resounding defeat when Jason was acquitted on Aug. 6 in less than 3 hours by a Boulder County jury. The D.A. was widely criticized for wasting taxpayer resources on the Lauve prosecution.
Prosecuting a pregnant woman would have arguably been the biggest PR mistake the D.A.'s office had made since Jason's case. 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.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13129763
http://www.colorado420.com/news/lauve/
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."
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_13450163
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:
http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/64187497.html
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