Guilty Verdict for Grumbine & Byron Leaves Ample Grounds for Appeal, Or So the Medpot Community Hopes

by Greggory Moore
Last week’s conviction of Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron for selling cannabis out of three storefront collectives may have huge ramifications for the medpot community.
That is, if the verdict survives the appeals process.
The reasons why it may not aren’t hard to fathom. For starters, courtroom observers –including OC Weekly writer Nick Schou — have marveled at the perceived bias of Judge Charles D. Sheldon (“Sheldon’s intense dislike of the defendants and their lawyers [was] obvious,” Schou writes), whose questionable efforts ranged from trying to prevent the jury from considering the California law allowing patients to ” associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes” — an effort an appeals court thwarted a day before the trial began — to erecting a screen so as to prevent the jury from viewing trial attendees.
 
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