http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20020111ac3wolfe11.frm
Friday, January 11, 2002
Local medical-marijuana activist
Renee Emry Wolfe was arrested on drug charges again this week, even as
she awaits sentencing on a previous charge of delivery and manufacturing
marijuana.
Ann Arbor Police officers took Wolfe,
41, from her home Tuesday and charged her with possession of marijuana
with intent to distribute it.
The arrest stemmed from an incident
in November when officers detected the odor of marijuana while accompanying
her husband into Wolfe's home so he could retrieve some belongings. Wolfe
gave them a bag of marijuana and the officers found a number of leaves
and stalks that Wolfe described as trash.
Wolfe, who says she uses marijuana
to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, charged the arrest was retaliation
for her outspoken views on the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
"They have targeted me and continue
to harass me and I'm tired of it," she said Thursday. "I intent to file
a lawsuit against the city of Ann Arbor and I'm going to win. And then
I'm going to buy lots of pot with the money I win."
Wolfe spent Tuesday night in jail
before she was arraigned Wednesday and released on a $10,000 personal recognizance
bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 23 in Washtenaw County District
Court. If convicted of the felony charge, Wolfe faces four years in prison.
Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Michael Logghe
scoffed at Wolfe's harassment claims.
"Obviously, she is incorrect. We
were called to her home. The idea that there is somehow a conspiracy against
her is preposterous," Logghe said.
Before her most recent arrest, Wolfe
was awaiting sentencing on drug charges. Wolfe was accused of selling marijuana
for $10 to a police informant in June 2000. She was charged with two counts
of delivery and manufacturing of marijuana. Both charges are punishable
by up to four years in prison.
In December, Wolfe pleaded guilty
to one of the charges in exchange for the other charge to be dismissed.
She was scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29.
Wolfe was convicted in 1995 on misdemeanor
marijuana possession charges and in 1996 on two felony charges of delivery
of marijuana. She received no jail time in either case.
In 1999, Wolfe was convicted in U.S.
Superior Court in Washington on a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession.
The charge stemmed from Wolfe lighting a marijuana cigarette in the Washington
office of Rep. William McCollum, R-Fla., in September 1998.
News reporter Liz Cobbs contributed
to this report.
Copyright 2001 Michigan Live Inc
By KARESSA E. WEIR
NEWS STAFF REPORTER