“Although the others were released on signature bonds, Christie remained in custody based on the prosecution’s argument that he posed a danger because he continued to run the marijuana operation even after his home and ministry had been raided by federal drug agents four months before his arrest.”
— Honolulu Star Advertiser, Trial For Big Island Cannabis Advocate Delayed, By Ken Kobayashi, POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 24, 2013
Aloha. Thanks for the whole story from yesterday’s Star-Advertiser. Share told me that it’s on the FrontPage “above the fold”. Wow. God, that’s great! I’ll get my copy of the Sunday paper in the mail here by Thursday.
I’m grateful that the newspaper decided to tell p-a-r-t of my/our story, at least. Since I seem to have little to zero control over the court of law I at least have some influence in the court of public opinion, so I’m going to write my/our defense as a story and see how far it can be published. If reporters are denied to interview me in here, and the Advertiser writes a story without asking me my point of view, then I’m gonna write my own side of it.
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For instance, do you know that the former U.S. Attorney for Hawai’i Ed Kubo told me to my face - twice - that he had zero interest in investigating or arresting me and that the THC Ministry could proceed? He told me that “we were good”; he was after meth or ice, not marijuana. This was right after he was appointed to the big job by Pres. GW Bush. I made a custom-made Ministry business card with a fresh-picked Cannabis leaf laminated on the back and handed it to Ed when I first introduced myself to him to make myself really clear. I had a full table of THC Ministry literature and products there for him and all the other law enforcers to view to make it double crystal clear of what I/we were up-to for full and total disclosure. Our first meeting was in a private dining room at Oodles of Noodles Restaurant in Kona with a roomfull of D.E.A. Agents, F.B.I. Agents, undercover vice cops, prosecutors, etc. I was the only ‘civilian’ there until my great friend Jerry Rothstein (R.I.P.) showed-up to support me. Do you know ANY of this? Will the jury get to hear any of this …”the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”? I’m told that our Judge will attempt to block this as “inadmissable evidence”. :-O
Do you know that Federal Judge Susan Mollway told me in a sealed court hearing in the case of U.S. v. Barnes in 2004 that she knew all about me and the THC Ministry and she thought that I should listen to counsel and decline to testify in the Barnes case, but that I should return to Hilo and continue with the Ministry. Do you know this? Will the jury hear this?
Do you know that Alvin Onaka, Administrator of the State of Hawai’i Dept. of Health testified under oath in U.S. v. Barnes that he knew what “Cannabis sacrament” was on my application for my license to marry people, that he approved of it and willingly and consciously signed my license that’s good for life? Obviously I was then legally allowed to either grow the Cannabis or to acquire it, to possess it, to transport it and to dispense it at least in marriage ceremonies.
Do you know that I called Hilo’s D.E.A. Agent Jesse Forney in 2004 and introduced myself. He told me that yes he knew who I was and he knew about the THC Ministry and that “we’re all good”. See ya around.
It’s time for me to come totally clean and clear about why I proceeded as a sincere and legitimate Ministry and how I thought we were protected by federal law enforcers and State of Hawai’i / Hawai’i County vice cops, Community Police Officers, etc., etc. for all those happy years.
Please reply to me and tell me if you know about what I just revealed to you? I forget exactly who I’ve told these stories and our history to. Thanks.
All the best to you and your crew!
Roger
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Hello Star-Advertiser,
Aloha to thee. Big thanks for your coverage of our THC Ministry trial being delayed in your Sunday paper. I see a few items that deserve correction, however.
1. First paragraph; we have a chance to have all of our charges dropped at a court hearing on Monday March 4th at 1:30. I could be released and go home that day and we could all avoid a trial.
2. Fourteenth paragraph; I never ‘switched lawyers’. My first public defender quit his job, and my second public defender quit my case leaving me with a court-appointed lawyer. These actions by others led to delays. Plus, our prosecutor’s wife died and he requested a delay.
3. Whatever happened to all the holy anointing oil made with Cannabis that was confiscated during the raid and during our arrest? The prosecutor doesn’t account for that missing sacred sacrament.
4. Monday’s court hearing includes a second Motion to Dismiss all of our charges based on the government’s undefined ‘religious exemption’ for Cannabis sacrament reportedly available, but vague and ambiguous.
5. To prove a case against us the government needs a ‘compelling interest’ to deny our religious freedom. When the government failed to arrest us during their raid in March of 2010 they plainly demonstrated that there was zero compelling interest or immediate danger as they let all of us go! :-O
Mahalo and your consideration and your accuracy.
Roger Christie
99279-022
Prison cell 104 Unit 5B
Federal Detention Center
P.O. Box 30080
Honolulu, Hawai’i 96820
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Response from former Hawaii County Council member Kelly Greenwell:
It might be easier to comprehend what is happening to Roger Christie if we were to ask who actually benefits from the treatment he has received by the court.
Ostensibly it would be his community, though it’s difficult to imagine that his community was ever in favor of imprisoning its leading advocate for an activity where 66% of the voters of that community declared its preference for procedure that would have allowed Mr. Christie to continue what he was doing – and especially since Constitutional, let alone civil rights are being flagrantly denied a respected member of that community.
Perhaps it’s the Federal Government who is the beneficiary as its latest claim is that they should have received a percentage of the income derived from the activities of Mr. Christie (tax), although by their own pronouncement this income is illegal. Interestingly, if they had accepted a percentage of these monies they would be party to what they consider a criminal act. Interesting position on their part, I think.
It’s possible that the beneficiary ends up being the court system itself – funding and job security for sure, but really the people who truly benefit are the volume traders in all drugs. Keeping a commodity illegal –be it alcohol, heroin, crack, or marijuana, or guns for that matter, only assures a premium price for that commodity, and what is even more sinister, makes for strange bedfellows to say the least.
Roger Christie has been denied due process because the courts label him a threat to his community and that is what’s at issue here. Any judge or prosecutor who promotes this line of thinking is in conflict with the fundamentals of justice and should be relieved of his/her position. And, citizens who do not cry out for this action are blind to their own future.
When the powers that be have recently stated that the assassination of an American citizen will only occur in cases where that citizen is deemed a terrorist, the question is —deemed by whom? And the answer it turns out is that it is a panel of untouchable court appointed agents- a parallel to the process used on Roger Christie.
Ultimately, the real victim here is freedom, and the culprit is the court who in this case most certainly poses an infinitely greater threat to Roger Christie’s community, as well as to Constitutionally protected rights of all Americans than is any American exercising his rights as an American.
Kelly Greenwell
Kailua Kona, HI
