PINO MISSES DEADLINE TO APPEAL $2,400 IN FINES

After seven months of court battles and defiance, it's the end of the
road for MediGrow owner Lazarus Pino's fight to keep his business open
in Windsor.

Pino recently missed a deadline to file papers in the Weld County
Combined Courts to challenge a ruling made by Windsor Municipal Judge
Michael E. Manning on July 13, sentencing him to $2,432 in fines.

The filing deadline was July 23.

"Collecting the fines will be the last piece in this fight," said
Windsor Town Attorney Ian McCargar.

McCargar estimated he's spent more than 50 hours litigating and
working on the town's case against Pino.

"That's the time I spent working, and does not include the time (Town
Prosecutor Kim Emil) has been working, as well," McCargar said.

The fines against Pino end an unusual saga for the town that began
last December when the town passed a moratorium on medical marijuana
dispensaries.

At the time when the moratorium was put in place, there were three
dispensaries operating locally.

The moratorium ordinance stipulated a dispensary must have been open
at least five days to avoid being closed for the duration of the
moratorium. Town officials ruled that two dispensaries, In Harmony
Wellness and A New Dawn Wellness Clinic, met the criteria and were
allowed to remain open.

The town ruled that MediGrow did not meet that requirement and was in
violation of the moratorium.

The original moratorium was passed for 75 days, and has been extended
twice since then. It currently is set to expire Aug. 31.

Because Pino decided to keep his business open in defiance of the
moratorium, the town fined his business $600 per day, $300 for
operating in defiance of the moratorium since Dec. 17 and $300 for
being open without proper building permits since Jan. 5.

MediGrow was issued a total of $62,100 in fines through April 28,
after which the fines were no longer issued.

Pino was found guilty on May 20 of 76 violations of the town's
moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Manning, however, dismissed the 65 building permit violations also
brought against Pino by the town.

Pino has been out of business since April 28, when Weld County
District Court Judge James E. Hartmann issued a preliminary injunction
against MediGrow on the question of whether the business should have
been exempted from the moratorium, shutting it down.

The owner of the building housing Pino's business has since gone to
foreclosure, and the bank that now owns that property got an eviction
order against Pino early in June, and the Weld County Sheriff's Office
subsequently evicted him from the premises.

Pino could not be reached for comment on this story.