JUDGE HEARS ARGUMENTS ON INJUNCTION AGAINST MISSOULA POT ENTREPRENEUR'S
FORMER WORKERS

Missoula District Court Judge Dusty Deschamps didn't cite the old saw
about how the person who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.

But he came close Thursday in a hearing on his recent restraining
order against three former employees of medical marijuana entrepreneur
Jason Christ.

The trio is suing Christ, who in turn sought the restraining order to
keep their new consulting business from competing with his Montana
Caregivers Network. Deschamps granted that order last week, but held
Thursday's hearing to see if he should continue it.

At the end of the disjointed, hour-and-a-half session, Deschamps still
wasn't sure he'd grant the injunction. And, as he had earlier in the
hearing, he advised Christ - who is representing himself - to get a
lawyer.

"This is tricky stuff," Deshamps said in response to a protestation by
Christ that he'd studied law for six weeks in preparation for the
week-old issue. "You'd be well advised to retain the services of an
attorney."

Former MCN employees John Phillips, Tiffany Klang and Nicole
Harrington do have an attorney, Chris Lindsey, and he objected
frequently Thursday as Christ sought to prove that their present
business violates a broad noncompete clause all three signed when they
worked for Christ.

Deshamps upheld most of those objections, and repeatedly reminded
Christ that his job was not to present evidence in the case pending
against him, but simply to show cause why Deschamps shouldn't keep the
restraining order in place.

When Christ asked to delay the hearing for a week so that a private
investigator could get back to him with evidence he was collecting,
Deschamps laid down the law, threatening to vacate the hearing altogether.

"I'm not going to leave these people in the lurch if you didn't have
your ducks in a row when you filed your paperwork," Deshamps said.

"I'm ready to proceed," Christ said hastily.

Deschamps also told Christ that he could sit down during the hearing.
"You don't have to stand there," the judge said.

"I have a pain in my rear," responded Christ, who says he smokes
medical marijuana to deal with the discomfort of Stage 4 hemorrhoids,
as well as Crohn's and celiac diseases.

Christ's former employees sued him in August, claiming he created a
work environment so hostile that they were forced to quit on June 18.
Their suit also contends that hundreds of applications to MCN for
medical marijuana applications were falsified, and that Christ used
company funds for personal expenses.

Christ responded to that action by seeking the restraining order. He
also wanted the case dismissed entirely. Deschamps refused the latter
request, but upheld the former last week.

On Thursday, he frequently admonished Christ for going off
topic.

"I don't want to tell you what to do, but I'm having trouble figuring
out what's going on," Deschamps said. Several times, he told Christ to
cut to the chase, telling him precisely what questions to ask.

Eventually, it emerged that after leaving MCN, Phillips, Klang and
Harrington formed a consulting firm called Rolling Numbers that helps
medical marijuana caregivers keep track of their plants so as not to
run afoul of state regulations.

Philips testified that MCN dealt with patients and Rolling Numbers
dealt with plants.

"Montana Caregivers Network basically made their income off the doctor
visits and we have nothing to do with doctor visits," he said.

And, Klang testified that Rolling Numbers has only a single customer,
outside Bozeman.

Christ, however, tried to elicit evidence that all three employees
stole the idea for their consulting company from him, questioning them
about their presence during Sunday meetings at MCN, where ideas to
develop the business beyond the doctor recommendations were discussed.

To support that contention, he called MCN employee Robert Hume as a
witness.

"Ideas were formed ... yes, ideas," Hume said. "But nothing in stone,
nothing in stone. Just ideas were thrown out there."

When Lindsey cross-examined Hume, asking if he ever had any training
in counting plants, Hume responded that the only counting he'd done
was "maybe in school - 1, 2, 3."

Christ also questioned Phillips again, this time on the issue of
one-on-one meetings where "high-level" company matters allegedly were
discussed.

Yes, Phillips responded. "You told me you wanted to fire half the
staff on the 16th of June and that was because you didn't want to take
money out of the reserve funds to meet payroll."

And, Christ asked MCN employee Ardyce Taylor about a service called
Weedware that he said he'd developed. Weedware's website calls itself
"a software solution for the medical marijuana industry," with
features such as accounting, bookkeeping and plant grow operation
tracking. However, most of the site's pages are still under
construction.

At the end of Thursday's session, Deschamps asked Christ, "How are you
going to be hurt if these people only have one customer and you've got
this great product that hasn't been released?"

The judge told Christ and Lindsey he'd have a decision for them within
36 hours. Until then, he said, the restraining order remains in effect.

"I suspect," he added, "that I'm not going to issue a preliminary
injunction."