Drug Cops Targeting Tacoma Medical Marijuana Dispensary Allegedly Handcuff Teen and Take Money from 9-Year-Old
by Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly
In the wake of a series of raids last week targeting a Tacoma medical marijuana dispensary, a Kitsap County mother is claiming that drug cops mistreated her son, took money from her daughter, and trashed her house.
Christine Casey, patient coordinator of North End Club 420, tells the Weekly that detectives from the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNet) who came to her house in Olalla (west of Vashon Island) handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head. They also told the kid to say goodbye to his dad, Guy Casey, because the dispensary owner was going to prison.
And as the detectives looked for cash to prove that the dispensary was illegally profiting from pot sales, Casey says, they confiscated $80 that her 9-year-old daughter had received from her family for a straight-A report card. Where did they find it?
In the girl's Mickey Mouse wallet, according to Casey. She also claims that the cops dumped out all her silverware, busted a hole in the wall, and broke appliances. She alleges, too, that the cops finger-wrote "I sell pot" in the dust covering the family's Hummer (which the cops then seized).
WestNet did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
The federally-funded, multi-jurisdictional task force came to Casey's home because Guy Casey, her ex-husband, still lives on the property in a guest house. A 48-year-old with arthritic knees, according to Christine Casey, he also grows pot there, both for himself and for another medical marijuana patient.
Casey says her daughter had already gone to school when the detectives arrived, around 8:30 a.m. on May 11. But her son had missed the bus and had just gone to the guest house to tell his dad when he ran into the detectives. According to Casey, the cops said they handcuffed the boy because "they just wanted to keep him safe" as they questioned Guy Casey and several friends who were visiting.
According to court documents filed with the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office (see
pdf), WestNet found $3,000 and 76 pot plants at the home (about half of which were small seedlings, Casey says). State law allows medical marijuana patients to keep only 15 plants on hand unless they can prove medical need for more. The task force also found 200 baggies of packaged marijuana at the dispensary itself.
The court documents say the raids followed an undercover operation in which a police operative repeatedly bought marijuana at the dispensary without producing a doctor's recommendation, as state law requires before someone can legally use marijuana. The documents also say that the dispensary was charging double the street value for the pot.
Casey and Michael Allison, who also works at the dispensary, insist they never sell pot without seeing a doctor's note and say they assume the confidential operative showed a fake recommendation. They also deny overcharging.
Even if that is true, the two men who run the business--Guy Casey and Michael Schaef--could face legal consequences. State law makes it illegal to provide pot to more than one person at a time, outlaws the sale of marijuana whatever the price.
- Article from Seattle Weekly.
