MARIJUANA CASE LIGHTS UP COURT

Pro-Pot Group Plans Protests At Hearing

A minor marijuana charge could generate some heat in the Dane County
courthouse Wednesday as Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler rules on
a motion in which the prosecution and defense seemed to have switched sides.

The prosecution has moved to dismiss without prejudice a misdemeanor
charge of possession of marijuana and resisting an officer against
Chris Lankford, 31, of Madison, who was charged with passing a joint
to Devin K. Dutilly, 23, during last year's 36th annual Great Midwest
Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison.

Oddly, it would seem, defense attorney Peter Steinberg is opposing
the motion to dismiss. But both Steinberg and Assistant District
Attorney Karie Cattanach, who is prosecuting the case, have reasons
for their positions on the dismissal issue.

As in most small-time drug cases, Cattanach offered the defense a
deal in the case that would involve Lankford, who has no prior
criminal record, pleading guilty or no contest but he had to accept
the deal by the time of the final pretrial conference.

When Lankford declined the deal, Cattanach moved to dismiss so she
could refile the case as a felony charge of possession of marijuana
with intent to deliver. Steinberg contended that was a vindictive
action and at one point asked that Fiedler remove Cattanach from the
case, which Fiedler declined to do.

In briefs filed with the court, Cattanach said "there has been no
vindictiveness on the part of the state," and that "the defendant was
given an offer that fully stated if rejected at the final pretrial
the state would issue felony charges. That is what the state now seeks to do."

But that position also infuriates members of the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and other
pro-marijuana activists.

"Why is this even before the court?" asks Gary Storck, one of the
co-founders of the Madison branch of NORML. "Dane County is facing a
money Shortage. Why is it being wasted on this?"

Storck and others plan to picket the courthouse in protest before the
11:30 hearing in Fiedler's court, then hope to have several people
attend the hearing in support of Lankford.

"People are really angry about this. They feel victimized," Storck
said. "It could have been any of them" who were arrested during the
annual protest of marijuana laws.

Lankford and Dutilly were arrested at the start of the parade when
University of Wisconsin Police Officer Michael Mansavage saw Lankford
slip a joint to Dutilly.

When Mansavage searched Lankford, according to his report on the
incident, he found five more whole joints and one half-smoked joint
on Lankford and arrested him. Dutilly was also arrested and his case
is set for a plea hearing, indicating he accepted a plea deal.

Mansavage is one of two UW officers who arrested and pepper-sprayed
longtime activist and marijuana advocate Ben Masel as he gathered
signatures for his run for the U.S. Senate at the Memorial Union last
summer. Masel is fighting a trespassing ticket in that case and also
plans to file a civil lawsuit in the near future.

Storck said neither the State Capitol police nor the City of Madison
police made any arrests at the march and festival in October and that
people have been smoking marijuana as a protest at the events for
more than 30 years.

Citing recent violence in the city, Storck said that "people don't
feel safe on the streets of Madison, but they don't feel threatened
by a guy smoking a joint."

Steinberg has also filed a motion to suppress evidence in the case, a
motion which will be heard later if Fiedler declines to dismiss the
case. In that motion Steinberg contends that while Lankford was being
held at the UW Police station he asked for a pen and paper to write
down notes to later give to his lawyer. Mansavage copied those notes,
even though they were privileged communications between Lankford and
his lawyer, Steinberg alleges.

Mansavage's report concedes he copied the notes and kept the copies
in the case file.