SAGINAW-BASED FEDERAL AGENT SAID PROTEST DIDN'T INFLUENCE MEDICAL
MARIJUANA BUST IN THOMAS TOWNSHIP

THOMAS TOWNSHIP - Saginaw-based federal drug agents said the close
proximity of a Tuesday raid at the home of Stephanie Whisman, 38, and
John Roberts, 49, to the rally Roberts organized last week protesting
action by the Saginaw County Sheriff's Department and calling for the
recall of Saginaw County Sheriff William L. Federspiel are purely coincidental.

"No, no, this has been ongoing for some time," said Joseph Schihl,
Drug Enforcement Agency Resident Agent in Charge for the Saginaw Office.

"We did execute a federal search warrant and a large grow was
seized," he said. "The subjects were detained at the house and
released pending further investigation."

Schihl said the couple could still be indicted and the evidence is
being tested at a federal crime lab in Chicago.

Robert and Whisman's Bay City attorney, Ed Czuprynski, called the
federal action "harassment and retaliation to the protest rally that
was sponsored... at the courthouse in Saginaw."

"It's pretty unbelievable that they would go to such extremes that
they have in response to a peaceful demonstration by law-abiding
citizens," he said. "It appears that there are certain rogue cops
that refuse to accept the mandate of the public in Michigan... We
have lawless law enforcement officers."

Czuprynski said it's his opinion that the sheriff's department was
involved in promoting the raid.

"I'm sure they had a lot to do it, but it's all under the radar,
though," Czuprynski said. "It's just pure retaliation. It's
harassment through the abuse of the police power (law enforcement
agencies) hold."

Czuprynski said he hopes the federal government will return Whisman
and Roberts' property and grow equipment.

"We're going to make an effort to get it back," he said. "But you
know: The federal government is pretty big."

Roberts said he and Whisman, members of the Tri-City Compassion Club,
kept less than the legal limits of plants and usable marijuana as
established by the state, which would be 132 plants and less than two
pounds of usable marijuana based on the number of patients the couple
said they have.