SAGINAW TOWNSHIP MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT HOPES POLICE WILL RETURN
SEIZED HUNTING RIFLE WITH SENTIMENTAL VALUE

SAGINAW - Edwyn W. Boyke Jr., 64, of Saginaw Township, said he hopes
police will return property seized from his home during a raid April
15 - especially the family heirloom, an ought six hunting rifle that
the father of Boyke's deceased wife gave him 25 years ago.

Boyke's $600, 42-inch Toshiba, flat-screen TV, charcoal filter,
dehumidifier and four guns, including three hunting rifles and an
antique, non-working Russian gun, are still in the possession of the
Saginaw County Sheriff's Department, 618 Cass in Saginaw - even
though Boyke has thus far not been charged with any crimes - Saginaw
County Sheriff William L. Federspiel said.

"I told them they could have them others ones, just leave me that
ought six," Boyke said.

Federspiel said the agency is holding the items on behalf and at the
request of federal agents, who are conducting an investigation into
the medical marijuana growing operation Boyke said he had in his basement.

"Typically, we don't keep big screen TVs," said Joseph Schihl, Drug
Enforcement Agency Resident Special Agent in Charge for the Saginaw
Office. "We don't have any use for any of that..."

Schihl said his agency hasn't had time to review the items to make a
determination whether they may be released to Boyke.

"An agent will be going over there to review the evidence and taking
what we need for the case," he said. "And then, when that will take
place, I don't know.

"This is not the only case we have going but that will take place in
the near future."

The April 15 raid was conducted collaboration of the sheriff's
department and federal agents, operating under a federal search warrant.

At the time, deputies also seized two lawn mowers, a leaf blower,
generator and an air compressor from his garage, Boyke's 2008 Chevy
Impala, $62 from his wallet, 52 marijuana plants, five jars of
harvested marijuana, Boyke's medical marijuana card, growing
apparatuses, scales and a scales - as well as destroying about $7,000
in growing equipment, Boyke said.

Those items were returned following an agreement in which Boyke was
required to pay the sheriff's department $5,000 in cash.

Boyke had a portion of his right temporal lobe removed because of a
brain tumor in 1995 and was recommended as a medical marijuana
patient to treat pain caused by a pinched nerve in his back.

Boyke admitted to having more plants than are allowed under Michigan
law, but said he wasn't aware that dozens of clones that hadn't been
transferred to soil counted towards his plant count.

He said it usually takes about a month to decipher the sex of the
plant and only female plants produce marijuana.