PROSECUTORS CHANGE COURSE ON POT DOCTOR CHARGE

Prosecutors Will Seek Marijuana Distribution Charge Against Dr. Manuel
Aquino-Villaman

AURORA - Reversing a previous decision, Arapahoe County prosecutors
now say they will file a marijuana distribution charge against an
Aurora doctor accused of doling out bogus medical marijuana
recommendations.

District Attorney Carol Chambers said in an interview Wednesday that
her prosecutors planned to charge Dr. Manuel Aquino-Villaman with
conspiracy to distribute marijuana in addition to two other charges
filed against the doctor last month.

Aquino-Villaman was arrested in early July after police say he gave
medical marijuana recommendations to two undercover police officers
who shouldn't have qualified.

When he was arrested, police listed two charges against Aquino-Villaman:
conspiracy to distribute marijuana and attempting to influence a public
servant, both felonies.

When prosecutors got the case, they didn't initially pursue the
distribution charge, instead charging Aquino-Villaman with attempting
to influence a public servant, namely the director of the state's
medical marijuana registry, and with forgery, alleging he falsified
the medical marijuana recommendation.

Chambers said Wednesday that after seeing a report on the case in The
Aurora Sentinel, she met with senior prosecutors to discuss the
marijuana charge and they decided the charge was appropriate.

"He didn't directly distribute the marijuana himself, but he caused it
to be distributed," she said.

The added charge has not been formally filed, Chambers said, but
prosecutors plan to add the charge at Aquino-Villaman's next hearing.

According to court records, that hearing is slated for Sept.
20.

Rob Corry, Aquino-Villaman's lawyer, did not immediately return a call
for comment Wednesday.

He said previously that the marijuana charge was inappropriate and
prosecutors were correct when they opted not to file it last month.

"There was no marijuana that changed hands, Dr. Aquino never possessed
it so I think that charge made no sense and apparently the prosecutors
agreed," he said in an interview a few weeks ago.

Chambers said Wednesday that the charge was appropriate because even
though there was no physical marijuana involved, Aquino-Villaman's
recommendation, which violated the law, allowed the officers to obtain
marijuana.

"But for the doctor's recommendation, the marijuana would not have
been distributed," she said.

Chambers said the case could be an important one because it could help
clarify the state's often-murky medical marijuana laws.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Aquino-Villaman, two
separate Aurora police officers, one in April and one in February,
went to his office undercover to obtain medical marijuana
recommendations.

The officers said they never told the doctor they were in pain, only
that they had been in serious accidents. One officer was in a
motorcycle crash that required him to have metal plates in his head.
The other was run over by a tractor.

Aquino-Villaman wrote medical marijuana recommendations for both
officers, citing pain as the reason.

Neither officer received marijuana at Aquino-Villaman's clinic, though
the first officer tried to.

Corry has said Aquino-Villaman acted appropriately when he recommended
medical marijuana for the two officers and that, based on what the
officers told the doctor, they should have qualified for medical marijuana.

"The officers went in and said they were suffering from medical
conditions, asked for a medical marijuana recommendation and Dr.
Aquino, who denies people who ask for these on a regular basis,
believed what these officers were telling him, which was his only
mistake," Corry said.

Aquino-Villaman made his first court appearance last month, at which a
judge granted his request to leave the state while he is free on
$6,000 bond.