Yes, crime pays -- for criminals on the "respectable" side of the law. |
“The court should
not allow this defendant to profit from the illegal delivery of controlled
substances,” insisted
Malheur County Deputy DA Mike Dugan as he demanded the imprisonment of
William Esbensen for the
supposed crime of providing medical marijuana to willing clients. This
isn't to say that Dugan rejected such profits as a matter of principle; he
simply believed that he and his comrades in the Malheur County Sheriff's Office
should be the ones enjoying the windfall.
Dugan’s desire to
imprison Esbensen and his business partner, Raymond Kangas, was left
unrealized: They were sentenced to probation after being found
guilty of “providing marijuana for consideration” under
a statute that is no longer in effect. The dead-letter law under which they were convicted
was so abstruse that Oregon's incumbent Attorney General, Ellen
Rosenblum, has said that neither she nor her subordinates fully understood
it.
Esbensen and
Kangas were among the co-founders of the 45th Parallel, a medical
marijuana co-op in Ontario that was raided by police in September 2012
following an investigation started – without authorization – by Boise-based
DEA Special Agent Dustin Bloxham. A pretext
stop and illegal search of a vehicle driven by Esbensen left the High
Desert Drug Enforcement Task Force (HDDE) in possession of a briefcase
containing all of the financial and client information from the 45th
Parallel.
Bloxham tried,
unsuccessfully, to get the US Attorney for Idaho interested in investigating
the Oregon-based clinic -- then mounted an operation on his own. This
involved committing several acts of interstate wire fraud and inducing a doctor
to
falsify medical records in order for Bloxham – in
the guise of “Dustin Hankins” – to obtain medical marijuana from staffers
at the 45th Parallel, who scrupulously followed state regulations in
providing it to him, not realizing that he had defrauded them.
A
few weeks later, the HDDE
carried out raids targeting the 45th Parallel and related sites
across the Treasure Valley. Nineteen people associated with the 45th
Parallel
faced criminal charges. Several hundred mature marijuana plants – enough to fill at least one
dump truck and a U-Haul trailer -- were confiscated by the HDDE at roughly
a dozen grow sites on both sides of the Oregon-Idaho border. In court testimony
MCSO Detective Brad Williams claimed to have buried the plants at the Lytle
Landfill outside of Vale, Oregon, but no record of their disposal has yet been
produced.
Sixteen of the 45th
Parallel defendants were offered deals sparing them prison time in exchange for
fines paid directly to the Malheur County Sheriff's Office. Esbensen, who was
the public face of the 45th Parallel – which was part of the local
Chamber of Commerce, and sponsored open houses to which the police were invited
– was designated the “ringleader” of what was treated as a “syndicate.”
The Malheur
County DA’s office charged Esbensen under the RICO Act and offered him a “deal”
that would have involved mandatory prison time as punishment for being part of
an open “conspiracy” to provide a legally recognized palliative medicine to
qualifying patients.
On the eve of his
joint trial with Esbensen, Mr. Kangas was presented with a deal: Testify
against Esbensen, and you'll get a fine and probation; otherwise, you'll go to
prison with him. Displaying resolve and character rarely seen outside of
Scottish border ballads, Kangas deflected the offer.
Kangas is a
quiet, middle-aged man with no previous criminal record. Several years ago,
after the housing market collapsed in Nevada, he cashed out his pension with
the pipe-fitter's union and moved his family – his wife Cindy and their two
young sons – to eastern Oregon. Like many others, Kangas became involved in
medical marijuana activism because of his family's experience with addiction to
prescription painkillers.
In testimony
during the June 23 sentencing hearing in Vale, Cindy Hunter-Kangas described
how a severe back injury left her addicted to legally prescribed opiates. For
the better part of two years she underwent treatment in a methadone clinic.
Currently employed at a local hospital, Mrs. Kangas still suffers from chronic
pain, which she treats through the legal use of medical marijuana.
In his June 6
bench verdict, trial Judge Gregory Baxter decreed that “the goal of the
defendants and other co-founders of the 45th Parallel was to make
lots of money through the sale of marijuana through the guise of a medical
marijuana dispensary.”
Where is it? Task Force operatives fill a dump truck with pot plants. |
Raymond Kangas,
who contributed $5,000 to fund the purchase of the former butcher's shop used
by the co-op, never profited from the enterprise. His primary motivation was to
ensure that his wife, and people in similar predicaments, would be able to
obtain a substance recognized by law as providing effective, non-addictive pain
relief.
The role played
by Kangas in the co-op was to supervise the 45th Parallel
“Compassion Group,” through which a local medical doctor would evaluate
patients and review their applications. Rather than living on the proceeds of
marijuana “trafficking,” Kangas has been working for a sand and gravel company in
Payette, Idaho, earning roughly $30,000 a year to complement the meager salary Cindy
receives for cleaning hospital rooms. This supposed drug dealer’s pimped-out
ride is a high-mileage 1999 Dodge.
“Al Capone is not
sitting in this courtroom today,” pointed out Kangas's defense attorney, Gary
Kiyuna. “My client is not an individual that [deserves] punishment. His actions
resulted in medical marijuana patients getting the medicine they needed....
There is no victim here.”
For his June 6
court appearance, Kangas was allowed to wear a nice suit and sit at the table
next to his defense attorney with his hands free. William Esbensen, however,
was forced to appear in prison clothes, shackled in handcuffs and leg
restraints. No policy or safety consideration dictated this treatment; it was
simply a gesture of proprietary malice by the Malheur County Sheriff's Office.
Looking for his share of the loot: Deputy DA Dugan. |
Malheur County
Deputy DA Dugan, who had tried the case, persisted in his effort to portray
Esbensen as a high-living vice lord and public menace.
Acting as a
character witness for her husband, Diane Esbensen described how the HDDE seized
cash, computers, and antique firearms from their home. She pointed out that the
family – which lives in an unprepossessing house in Boise, and has never owned
a new vehicle – had to liquidate its properties and other assets in order to
pay legal costs.
In a moment of
rarefied malice, Dugan asked Mrs. Esbensen if her husband had filed income
taxes on the proceeds from the 45th Parallel. She truthfully answered that he
had not. On redirect, defense attorney Susan Gerber asked Mrs. Esbensen why the
tax returns hadn't been completed. The witness replied that the prosecutor's
office was still in possession of the relevant financial and business records.
Dugan was aware
of this when he posed the question, of course, but he appears to be a person
unburdened by professional scruples or rudimentary decency. The vacancy created
by the absence of those virtues has most likely been filled with ambition and
simple avarice.
In
his sentencing memorandum, Dugan claimed that a forensic analysis of
Esbensen's finances revealed that he “received over $40,000 in checks from the
45th Parallel.” He also calculated that his “prosecution costs” for
the 45th Parallel case are “equal to $39,500” – but that his office
would be satisfied to receive $33,500 derived from Esbensen's supposedly
illicit proceeds.
“The costs of
investigation are being recovered by the imposition of compensatory fines
payable to the Malheur County Sheriff,” noted Dugan's memorandum. “To date the
total amount of compensatory fines ordered to the sheriff has been $31,957.
Additionally they have received, through equitable sharing, an additional
$30-$40,000.”
“Equitable
sharing” is the process through which local police agencies and sheriff's
offices confiscate money and property through “asset forfeiture,” and kick back
a percentage to their Federal partners in plunder. By allowing the Feds to
claim control over confiscated proceeds, police departments and sheriff’s
offices can circumvent their own state laws.
Assuming that it
is a crime to “profit” from marijuana proceeds, Dugan's memorandum offers
irrefutable proof that the Malheur County Sheriff and District Attorney are
partners in a criminal syndicate. Their acknowledged “take” from the 45th
Parallel case, as set forth by Dugan, would be more than $100,000. And this is
by no means a comprehensive accounting for all of the proceeds collected by the
MCSO and the DA's office.
Recall that this
case began when
DEA Agent Bloxham discovered that there was money to be seized at the 45th
Parallel. It's reasonable to believe that his office received at least part
of the loot, but the opacity of the asset forfeiture process will make it
difficult to determine how large of a share that would be.
When the HDDE
searched the Esbensen home, they found $55,000 in cash that was never connected
to the 45th Parallel. The
Malheur County Sheriff’s Office appropriated at least $40,000 of that money
before Esbensen was brought to trial, and at least $7,000 of confiscated funds
were used to pay for the prosecution of the case. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars were frozen in various bank accounts, and unspecified amounts of cash
and property were seized during searches of carried out on September 11, 2012.
There is also the
matter of the missing marijuana – several hundred pounds of a valuable cash
crop for which no satisfactory accounting has been made.
In his slim but informative book Memoirs of an Oregon Moonshiner, Ray Nelson described what it was like to live in Malheur County during the period of official derangement known as alcohol prohibition.
Like countless others Nelson -- a World War I veteran and cowboy by training and inclination -- got involved in the manufacture and "illegal delivery" of a controlled substance out of economic necessity. During a business trip to Vale in 1923, Nelson and his first partner were ratted out by an informant, the type of person "which Vale was accursed with," and then arrested by "three old ex-barflies" who had been deputized by the Malheur County Sheriff's Office."
Nelson and his friend pleaded guilty to "possession of whiskey" in the hope that as first-time offenders they would receive leniency. Instead, the Justice of the Peace, who "looked at us with a hangman's-gallows look on his mug," sent them to jail for ninety days and imposed a $300 fine -- a considerable sum at the time.
After it was made clear that the judge and his fellow parasites were interested only in the fine, and would commute the jail term if it were paid, Nelson and his colleague -- in an entirely admirable display of contemptuous defiance -- refused to pay the ransom and rejected offers by their friends to pay it on their behalf. Once he was set free, Nelson resumed his career, providing a high-quality product for willing customers at a reasonable price. Nelson would eventually serve time in prison after the Malheur County Sheriff's Office and district attorney struck a deal with an ex-convict to testify against the bootlegger.
"I was never a criminal, so I never shall reform," Nelson testified decades later. "Robbing, stealing, killing, swindling, and the like are something I never did believe in. I hate and despise anybody who goes in for anything like that and want to see them justly prosecuted. Those who bucked the prohibition law were the same stock of people who, back in Colonial days, comprised the Boston Tea Party ... people who had nerve enough to contest a law that was a direct infringement on their rights."
In contrast with the honest and honorable businessmen who defied prohibition to make a modest living, "Crooked county and state officials were getting rich from it." The same was true of politically protected gangsters who in collusion with bureaucrats and law enforcement officers "branched out into other rackets such as extortion, kidnapping, and bank robbery."
In his slim but informative book Memoirs of an Oregon Moonshiner, Ray Nelson described what it was like to live in Malheur County during the period of official derangement known as alcohol prohibition.
Like countless others Nelson -- a World War I veteran and cowboy by training and inclination -- got involved in the manufacture and "illegal delivery" of a controlled substance out of economic necessity. During a business trip to Vale in 1923, Nelson and his first partner were ratted out by an informant, the type of person "which Vale was accursed with," and then arrested by "three old ex-barflies" who had been deputized by the Malheur County Sheriff's Office."
Nelson and his friend pleaded guilty to "possession of whiskey" in the hope that as first-time offenders they would receive leniency. Instead, the Justice of the Peace, who "looked at us with a hangman's-gallows look on his mug," sent them to jail for ninety days and imposed a $300 fine -- a considerable sum at the time.
After it was made clear that the judge and his fellow parasites were interested only in the fine, and would commute the jail term if it were paid, Nelson and his colleague -- in an entirely admirable display of contemptuous defiance -- refused to pay the ransom and rejected offers by their friends to pay it on their behalf. Once he was set free, Nelson resumed his career, providing a high-quality product for willing customers at a reasonable price. Nelson would eventually serve time in prison after the Malheur County Sheriff's Office and district attorney struck a deal with an ex-convict to testify against the bootlegger.
"I was never a criminal, so I never shall reform," Nelson testified decades later. "Robbing, stealing, killing, swindling, and the like are something I never did believe in. I hate and despise anybody who goes in for anything like that and want to see them justly prosecuted. Those who bucked the prohibition law were the same stock of people who, back in Colonial days, comprised the Boston Tea Party ... people who had nerve enough to contest a law that was a direct infringement on their rights."
In contrast with the honest and honorable businessmen who defied prohibition to make a modest living, "Crooked county and state officials were getting rich from it." The same was true of politically protected gangsters who in collusion with bureaucrats and law enforcement officers "branched out into other rackets such as extortion, kidnapping, and bank robbery."
Wherever
prohibition exists, the most dangerous criminals – and the largest illicit profits – are always
found on what is called the “respectable” side of the law.
Dum spiro, pugno!
8 comments:
Mr. Grigg,
Are you privy as to why this was a bench trial (Esbensen and Kangas) and not a jury trial?
Thank you
PS. I realize this one very important right has been constantly attacked for decades; I'm just wondering what b.s. reason they gave this time.
PPS. I just "love" the concept of quasi-criminal jurisdiction in which one will have a criminal record if convicted but you have none of your rights as if it was a criminal offense (jury trial, et al).
the worst of all are the hypocrites featured in your articles pretending to engage in lawful activities as they abscond with all that is of value.
they do this because we, the chumps, tolerate what they do. we even send the same schumucks back to write the same laws that do the same damage over and over.
The only i've learned from history is that people don't learn anything from history.
There are two types of people: Those who are intelligent and moral enough to contribute to the productive betterment of society, and thereby earn an honest living, and those who are too dumb and/or greedy and/or lazy to do so. The latter then become parasites on the productive classes, in one form or another - cops, meter maids, prosecutors, lawyers, city council members, congressmen, senators, presidents, dogcatchers, CIA employees, and so on. No difference between any of them - all one and the same. They are all - without exception - bloodsucking leeches draining the life out of the rest of the society of productive human beings, who provide real services and benefits to each other.
Eventually, one of two outcomes will prevail: Either the productive classes wil rid themselves of the parasites, or everyone will become a parasite. In that case, as all productive labor ceases, the society will end up in starvation and destitution.
That is the choice America is faced with: To recover its original freedoms and prosperity, by whatever means necessary, or to become another failed state like Zaire or Chad.
It will be interesting to see which way we end up.
- LG
PS: Mr. Grigg,
From the article: "This involved committing several acts of interstate wire fraud and inducing a doctor to falsify medical records in order for Bloxham – in the guise of “Dustin Hankins” – to obtain medical marijuana...."
Isn't "inducing a doctor to falsify records" a conspiracy, prosecutable under Federal RICO statutes?
Isn't obtaining a driver's license in a false name - "Dustin Hankins" - a felony? Or did the Idaho Department of Motor vehicles knowingly conspire in this fraud? Isn't that a RICO offense?
How many crimes were committed by these "Law Enforcement Officers" and associated government agencies? It stuns the mind to even contemplate the list of prosecuatble crimes committed by these "Guardians of the Law" (sic).
But of course they enjoy "qualified immunity."
So did the Nazis who stuffed human beings into gas chambers and ovens. Whatever they did was -- quote-unquote -- "Legal".
There is one Law for us Mundanes, you and me, and another Law for those-whose-feces-smells-like-roses.
Many years ago, in 1995, in the Parliament in Cape Town, I listened to Mac Maharaj discuss the legacy of Apartheid. He said, that when the government and its servants, who make the laws, break these same laws at will, there arises in the population at large an utter contempt for The Law.
The Law is seen then merely as a fraudulent scheme imposed upon the weak and innocent by criminals in suits. What ensues from this is a criminal state, with no laws, no justice, and no pity, governed only by the law of the jungle, which is the situation today in South Africa.
Look carefully at South Africa. Look at the razor wire, the machine guns, the rampant crime, the rapes, the murders, the looting, the carjacking, the casual killing in order to steal fifty cents. If we in America continue as we are going, we are looking at our own future.
God help us.
- LG
Is it not obvious who the real criminal thugs are here?
The day is soon coming that all these twisted power mad greedy bastards disguised behind the illusion of respectability and color of law will be held accountable for all the innocent lives and families they have destroyed in their sick and demented careers.
Apparently they have not a clue about the universal laws that work with mathematical precision without fail for every body.
I am simply failing to understand how they could be prosecuted for engaging in LEGAL business. Why was this case allowed to go this far without the judge telling the ass DA, you cannot try someone for doing something that is LEGAL in this State.
dugan was fired by the voters of deschutes county for being a pos, malhuer co no doubt saw his virtues as a parasite to be of use.
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