1 6 cases dismissed, more to come as Oakland County admits dispensary
raider went rogue; gutless Bouchard makes McCabe take the heat, refuses
to issue charges
Michigan has seen some bad press lately-
ranked the 7th worst state for corruption and the Michigan State Police Crime Lab having
their marijuana test results ruled
to be not up to scientific snuff. The cannabis community has been abuzz
with news that one of Oakland County’s drug warriors was fired by his
superiors for lying to them, to prosecutors, to judges and to the
people- and probably has been for years.
Former Detective Mark Ferguson, according to
the January 29th Detroit Free Press,
was fired from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department for breaking
into a suspicious shipping container, discovering drugs, resealing the
container and then swearing out a warrant to open it legally. During the
trial, when he was under oath and directly asked if the container had
been opened prior to obtaining the warrant, Ferguson denied it.
The Oakland Press
revealed more details.
“One of the witnesses said ‘The officer opened that package in my
presence,’” Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton said. A
second witness confirmed this. “At one point, detective Ferguson
(asked) my client ‘What do you got in the box, 78 pounds of marijuana?’
That was before the box was allegedly searched,” defense attorney James
Gaylon said. ” I was convinced Detective Ferguson was lying on the
stand. I was convinced he was lying in order to keep his case solid.”
Complicating
this story is the complete absence of Sheriff Mike Bouchard. He seems
to delegate the duty of addressing bad news to his unfortunate
subordinate Undersheriff McCabe, who is left to explain why Ferguson
will not be charged with any crime. Perjury, breaking and entering,
filing a false police report, conspiracy- the potential number of crimes
committed is staggering- but McCabe claims no charges will be filed
because Ferguson could get his job back if he is acquitted of the
charges. “We can’t take the chance that the jury will acquit,” McCabe is
quoted as saying.
In 2010 and 2011, the Oakland County NET team
raided medical marijuana distribution centers in the entire southeastern
Michigan area. Accusations of misconduct surrounding those raids has
circulated continuously since that time. Ferguson
admitted to making a fake medical marijuana card using
his police computer and used it to gain entry to dispensaries that had
previously rejected other NET team members. I have firsthand knowledge
of this, since I was at Big Daddy’s in January 2011 when Ferguson, his
partner Derek Myers and the NET team raided the Oak Park establishment;
that court case is still ongoing.
Oakland County Prosecutors
supposedly learned of Ferguson’s corruption in September of 2012. The
Free Press report says prosecutors quickly dismissed the drug
trafficking charges involving Anastacio Payan of California and the 78
lbs of marijuana, then reevaluated 100 open drug cases. Oakland County
Prosecutor Jessica Cooper elected to dismiss 16 of them due to potential
misconduct by Ferguson.
The Free Press reports that in the Payan
case Ferguson called other team members to the shipping yard, and then
picked the lock on the container. Ferguson was the only person on the
squad that reported an overpowering smell of cannabis coming from the
container. These facts were revealed after prosecutors, preparing for
the Payan case, interviewed the witnesses involved and discovered the
officer’s criminality. Where is the disciplinary action against the
other narcotics team members that knew of, but did nothing to stop,
Ferguson’s criminal behavior?
Ferguson, and other members of the
NET narcotics team, are notorious for playing outside the boundaries of
the law. The article notes that charges were dropped in the Kelley case
from 2011 after it was revealed that Ferguson and Myers conducted a raid
on a Pontiac home then obtained a search warrant afterward.
Court documents obtained by The
Compassion Chronicles detail Ferguson’s rebuke by the Michigan Court of
Appeals for the improper questioning of Sylvester Giles. Per the COA
document: “Detective Ferguson’s question to defendant constituted an
interrogation under
Miranda,” and, “…defendant was not read his
Miranda rights prior to this interchange.”
In the Clinical Relief case there was a question of appropriate use of police force;
court transcripts show Myers
was asked under oath about a long rifle being held to the head of a
restrained suspect. Myer’s response: “I don’t remember.” Detective Myers
was involved in
a tax evasion case:
his accountant, Mr. Redinger, “admitted to willfully assisting in the
preparation of a false 2001 Federal income tax return for Derek Meyers…
an OCSD deputy, by claiming false unreimbursed expenses as itemized
deductions.” Redinger plead guilty to falsifying 34 tax returns.
Yet another case involves Ferguson and fellow officer McLaughlin. During a traffic stop the officers
were accused of inappropriately searching a vehicle,
inappropriately towing that vehicle, and threatening “to have other
officers falsely pin a murder charge on (the accused) when he initially
indicated that he wanted an attorney.” That threat coerced the accused
into making a confession, per the court documents. There is no evidence
that Ferguson was disciplined for any of these offenses.
Attorneys
involved in these dispensary cases knew that there was something amiss
all along. Thomas Loeb, one of nine attorneys hired to represent the
Clinical Relief defendants,
said, “I think Oakland County is trying to make a political point and they are doing it in the wrong way.”
The shipping yard involved in the Payan case is all-too familiar to medical marijuana advocates. It is this location where
Ferguson in 2011 trapped Dryden
dispensary operator Randy Crowell and a female associate when they came
to pick up a container sent from out-of-state. According to the Free
Press report, the same employee clued Ferguson in on both the Payan and
Crowell raids. It is reasonable to assume Ferguson used the same dirty
tricks to trap Crowell that he used with Payan. A lawsuit against the
Oakland County Sheriff Department seems likely- and the unfortunate
taxpayers of Oakland County will be footing the bill.
“Everything
he did is now going to be subject to scrutiny, and at great
administrative costs,” said constitutional law professor Peter Henning
from Wayne State University to the Free Press, in reference to Ferguson.
“Sure, getting a warrant is a hassle, it slows down police work, but
you don’t cut corners. It’s one of the reasons we had a revolution. It
is at the core of the Constitution.”
The Oakland County dispensary
purge in 2010 raises questions of conduct and credibility regarding the
raid team’s methodology. All charges against the Clinical Relief
dispensary operators
were dropped in 2012.
The court documents detailing the undercover surveillance and
surreptitious buys generated broad criticism in the media and the
courts. Sheriff Bouchard held a press conference in which he told the
world about an alligator being used to guard a medical marijuana grow
room; the alligator, named Chubbs, was
later revealed to be
about eighteen inches long and living in a room separate from the
plants.
The fake medical marijuana cards and alligator story became news
fodder for ABC, CBS, NBC and every cable/Internet news outlet.
When
the NET team raided Big Daddy’s they
did not know who was in charge, who were employees and who were
patients. They did not even know we ran the Michigan Medical Marijuana
Magazine from those offices. They swore out a search warrant for the
home of the business owners- and then served it at the wrong house.
This
Keystone Cops routine may not have been their fault. In January 2011, a
new Attorney General was sworn in and he immediately agreed to share
private and protected information with the DEA, information that his
predecessor Mike Cox had refused to surrender. In response, the Michigan
Association of Compassion Centers (MACC)
hit the AG with a restraining order
to halt the transfer of information. A few days later the Oakland
County Raid Team was bursting into the offices of MACC- located in Big
Daddy’s Oak Park facility, after what was obviously insufficient
surveillance and investigation. The suggestion that the raid was ordered
by Ferguson’s superiors- perhaps even from Lansing- has never been
disproved, and these new revelations make it more likely that this was
the case. Perhaps this is the real reason why Ferguson faces no criminal
charges- is this final act of protectionism from Bouchard a desperate
bid to buy his silence?
It’s not a crime to be used as a tool by
people like Bouchard and the current Attorney General; it is a crime if
you break the law to enforce the law. Convicted felons whose cases were
made by Ferguson and the NET team are legitimately interested in suing
the County and having their cases re-opened. Oakland County residents,
prepare yourself for a long, expensive, embarrassing battle. I suggest
you insist on your newly re-elected Sheriff to actually stand before a
microphone and address you on the issue instead of watching Undersheriff
McCabe do the denial dance.
By
