Two women who worked with marijuana advocate Roger Christie said they never checked the identification of people who lined up outside The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry in Hilo to receive marijuana for use as sacrament.
Jessica R. Walsh and Victoria C. Fiore testified in U.S. District Court on Tuesday in a hearing to determine whether the court will allow Christie and his wife, Sherryanne, to use the religious defense in their upcoming trial for marijuana possession, distribution, manufacture and conspiracy charges. The trial is scheduled for early October.
Walsh said she answered an ad for the job that appeared on Craigslist. She said she worked at the ministry from January 2009 to March 2010, when federal authorities raided the Hilo waterfront establishment. Fiore said she worked at THC Ministry from mid-April to mid-June 2009.
Both said they handed out marijuana to people who presented ministry membership cards and made donations of between $20 and $50 as part of THC Ministry’s "express" procedure for administering sacrament. They said Christie directed them not to tell the members how to use the marijuana.
According to literature contained in THC Ministry’s "Sanctuary Kit" mailed to members outside Hilo, the marijuana was to be used as sacrament in private, at home or in nature.
BOTH women said they did not ask for other forms of identification to verify that the people presenting membership cards were in fact those whose names appeared on them. Walsh said some people had expressed the desire not to use their real names on the membership cards, while Fiore said some used membership cards that were not theirs.
For the Christies to have a chance at using the religious defense in trial, they need to state to the court their beliefs, show that those beliefs are religious and prove they are sincere in their beliefs.
U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi ruled in a previous court hearing that the Christies have done that.
If the government wants to prevent the use of the religious defense, it needs to convince Kobayashi that it has a compelling interest in prosecuting the Christies and that the prosecution is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest. That was the purpose of Tuesday’s hearing. Prosecutor Michael Kawahara presented testimony from Walsh and Fiore to show that marijuana handed out by the ministry could get into the hands of non-THC Ministry members.
Kobayashi gave the lawyers for all the parties until Sept. 4 to file legal arguments and promised to render a decision by Sept. 10.
Even if Kobayashi allows the religious defense, the Christies will still need to convince a jury that their actions were guided by their religious beliefs and practices.
In a case in November, Chico Martines was tried in federal court on charges of conspiring to cultivate more than 100 marijuana plants and possessing the marijuana with the intent to distribute it.
The Drug Enforcement Administration seized 112 plants that were growing in a commercial building in lower Kalihi that Martines was renting.
The trial court allowed Martines to use the religious defense against the government’s claim that he intended to distribute the marijuana.
Martines testified he grew the marijuana for his own use in the practice of his Rastafarian religious beliefs.
The jury found him guilty of conspiracy but not guilty of the possession charge. He is serving a 12-year prison sentence. His lawyer Michael Park said Martines is appealing his conviction.
