Judge guts pot case against `ganja guru'

[The Straight Story]

Judge guts pot case against `ganja guru'
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 03/14/2007 06:11:32 PM PDT

A federal judge dismissed money laundering and tax charges against "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal on Wednesday, gutting the government's case by ruling the new charges amounted to vindictive prosecution.

The government said new charges it filed against Rosenthal in October resulted from their re-evaluation of the case, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco noted, but "it is apparent that it decided to re-evaluate its strategy in response to Rosenthal's (and his supporters') public criticism of the trial."

"In other words, the government's deeds -- and words -- create the perception that it added the new charges to make Rosenthal look like a common criminal and thus dissipate the criticism heaped on the government after the first trial," Breyer wrote.

Case law says there's a presumption of vindictiveness when the government increases the charges' severity after the defendant's successful appeal -- exactly what happened here, Breyer wrote. "As the government concedes, this is the rare case in which the presumption applies. And it is a case in which the government has failed to satisfy its burden of rebutting the presumption."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_5436352

[ms liberty]

1. Well, that's good news...

we've had precious little good news lately, even in the war against the war on pot.

I'm really happy for Ed Rosenthal, who's been thru enough crap from the federal government.