Weedman gets judge removed from cases
It is with a ray of hope springing forth for Eddie "NJ Weedman" Forchion as the clear case of judicial vindictiveness against him is beginning to take a turn supporters believe to be for the better. For those of you who don't know, Ed Forchion is the 25+ year front line defender of cannabis who brought medical cannabis to the state of New Jersey. He is also the one who has been teaching jurors about their right to Jury Nullification from coast to coast, beginning of coarse with the state of New Jersey!
Eddie is one of the founders of the United Cannabis Ministries and also is the founder of Liberty Bell Temple. Forchion opened and operated Liberty Bell Temple 3 directly across the street from the Mercer County Courthouse and caddy-corner from the Federal courthouse drawing much attention to his activism, but what got him set into the sights of local police is when Forchion leased the adjoining building and added "The Weedman's Joint" restaurant. Next thing we know, police are illegally raiding Forchion's joints, kicking people out of his church and insisting "No Chicken Wings after 11 Pm" claiming a zoning regulation not applicable to the zone Forchion's spots are at, prompting Forchion to file an injunction and lawsuit on the police.
Coincidentally perhaps, just after the beginning of the year, the state of New Jersey implemented a new bail reform act, which is supposed to hold violent and dangerous defendants in police custody until they go through there trial. At the same time, police began encountering Forchion and his places of business more and more frequent'y and illegally. At one point they burst in with machine guns drawn saying they had a confidential informant who claims to have bought cannabis from the Weedman, something Forchion assures NEVER EVER EVER could would or did happen. Of coarse that didn't stop them from hauling him to jail and charging him for it!
This and his new debt for bail, prompted Weedman to see if he could figure who such a person could be, so to his surveillance systems he went. Upon reviewing his video, he decided to start releasing some of his footage showing the illegal police harassment and excessive abuse of authority toward his patrons and church members, which of coarse brought police back around stealing all his cameras and computer equipment, but not before he got a possible suspect in his sights. Forchion took his suspicions to his social media (facebook) and began asking his public for information about the suspected snitch, something law enforcement officials do all the time, and in fact had Several times on this particular person! Word quickly came of the man from the public, along with phrases such as "snitches end up in stitches", and that was all it apparently took to land the Weedman in jail without an option of bail.
Forchion is believed to be the first person arrested and held under the new bail reform law,at least in the state of New Jersey, which according to the prosecution revolves around Ed's alleged online harassment of an apparent "Confidential police informant." Forchion is being held for exercising his right of free speech on his own personal public social media site on Facebook and for publicly requesting information about a possible "Rat" whom police in several states also actually also posted seeking information about the same man. He was awaiting a decision from the judge as to whether or not he would be allowed to know and face his accuser in court come trial.
24 hours after that decision came Denying he his right to Know his accusor, Forchion was promptly arrested for his previous posts on his social media inquiring on the obviously now confirmed CI as violating the new Bail reform Act by endangering the safety of there witness. As you can clearly see in this article right here linked immediately below for your convenience, and we Quote: "Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi handed down the decision Thursday, saying that Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion and his attorney do not need to know the identity of the informant in order to build a defense against the drug charges."
How it is justified that charging him for something that wasn't wrong when he did it days Before a ruling seems to be a mis-justice on the state of New Jersey's part, a mis-justice Forchion will Not take lying down! Ed Leggoe says "...revolve around his alleged online harassment of a (suspected) police informant."What baffles me is that the prosecutor has yet to identify their "Confidential Informant" and continues to dance around whether the person "threatened" is the informer or not. Massi was wrong to have denied Ed bail."
Ed Forchion has accused Mercer County Judge Anthony Massi of misconduct and promised publicly that he would ultimately come out victorious in a lawsuit after the judge recently dismissed one of his civil rights suits against Mercer County prosecutors and the county jail warden this month. The judge ruled that Forchion's “frivolous” litigation was without merit. Judge Massi, photoed here, has been overseeing Forchion's cases for more than a year now and is the one keeping him detained in jail.
Forchion’s lawsuit complained that he is illegally and unconstitutionally being detained at the Mercer County Correction Center on the witness tampering charges. didn’t raise any “policy claims” against Mercer County prosecutors and Trenton Police. In turn, Forchion filed an ethics complaint against Mercer County Judge Anthony Massi, who presided over his case. As a result, we have just gotten word that Judge Massi has officially been Removed from Eddie's case! Truth be known, the juficial system is only allowed to hold a person Up to 180 days before it's considered that they have been deprived of "Due Process". Forchion has passed that mark as of September 1st but according to the judge upon confrontation, 67 days of the time forchion has served apparently is not being counted.
Forchion's lawsuit also contended that he has been “maliciously” denied medical care at the jail and victimized by malicious prosecution. U.S. District Court Judge Peter Sheridan issued an opinion earlier this month saying he believes Forchion's suit "was legally deficient." Forchion is a bone cancer patient who is prescribed medicinal cannabis as his primary treatment regiment and who has been deprived of the medication since he was incarcerated for now over 5 straight months.
Patrick Duff had this to say about Forchions situation: "67 days don't count? How is that? It sounds like the prosecution is scared to give him his right to a speedy trial and the judge is a coconspiritor in the denial of his rights. You see, prosecutors and judges only have power over those who are willing to concede, who have fear of the shistem, and their worst fear is an educated and uncooperative defendant. Even better, they are scared to death of an angry black man who has already proven that he can beat them at their own game, on even heavier charges with less "evidence" than they had before. So now they hold a nonviolent offender who never once threatened anyone, nor ran from the law, in a cell because he has prove that the system can be beaten. He's like the OJ of weed, except weed doesn't kill, that would be prohibition."
According to Forchion and his supporters, the case is likely being reassigned to another judge so to avoid an appearance of conflict while the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, which vets complaints in secret, said in a letter that it will determine whether there’s an “indication of improper judicial conduct” on Judge Massi’s part or not.
Russell Forchion said it best in his post: "The Petty False arrest and illegal imprisonment is starting to be exposed! Its a big deal for the judge to be removed!" Many of Forchion's supporters wonder why main stream media have yet to pick up his lengthy and first of it's kind incarceration. Another observer of the situation by the name of Steve Demko publicly noted "I think this situation is absurd---Under bail-reform---people that committed--violent and sexual offenses are walking pending trial---the charges he is facing don't warrant being held without bail----as so many today are accepting of marijuana---they are gonna have an uphill battle finding a jury that's gonna buy any of this BS>" but ultimately it's the words from his father Bob Forchion that rings best and most heart-felt by this reporter: "He's to sharp (prepared) that's why they won't go to trial. I'm proud of my son."
So, what went on with Forchion and his attorney? Well, according to Eddie: “I wouldn’t have went down that rabbit hole had he not led me there,” Forchion said to media about his former attorney’s legal tactics. “On the other side was Ms. Katz with a cage” referring to the prosecutor who is gunning for him. According to Forchion, his now former attorney Edward Heyburn asked the court to be let out of his case and then testified against Forchion in a pretrial proceeding. As if that wasn't treacherous enough, Heyburn then served Forchion with the defamation lawsuit at an August court appearance. Forchion described his former attorney better than anyone could: “He’s worst than a scorned girlfriend.”
If you'd like to learn more details about it, please click on the following link:
Weedman filed a total of three ethics complaints against his former attorney Heyburn, and in response to those filings, Heyborn decided to ho ahead and release approximately 1,700 pages of text messages, emails and documents the two exchanged while he was Forchion's legal council, contending to local media the correspondence clears him of any wrongdoing in regards to his client's defense and insists that it's all Forchion's fault he remains illegally incarcerated. “I dumped him because he was idiot and didn’t listen to any of my advice,” Heyburn shot back. “He went on his own campaign to attack this informant against my advice.”
Forchion has retained another attorney, Mario Williams, a managing partner out of the Virginia-based firm Nexus Caridades. Dog the Bounty hunter hooked the two up and Williams is expected to represent him in both federal lawsuits. Forchion is allowed to refile the lawsuit as long as he does so in the next month which we have no doubt he will do as he is and remains a front liner defender of justice and freedom for we and our beloved plant medicines
We continue to put out a call of support for Eddie. We ask that you support him in court if your able, we will update you once a court date is set. We ask that you send him a letter of encouragement and or a card to lift his spirits. We ask if you can, to consider putting money on his books while he's in jail, by buying him a book to read while he's in there as it's his favorite passtime, and that you support his support system, meaning "The Weedman's Joint" (aka WeedBux) and too, his partner Debi, who has his back and is keeping his dreams as well as his legacy alive out here, and his family, friends and all his loved ones who ultimately are and remain his biggest strength of all.
Also if you would, we ask that you Please take a few moments and spread the word to your local media and ask that they consider some coverage on this situation, and too, that you consider expressing your outrage to ALL the government officials doing this miscarriage of justice... the New Judge coming, the prosecutors, all the county officials including the county commissioners, and even Governor Christie's office - this is a gross abuse of the law they are entrusted by the people of New Jersey to respect and honorably uphold. It's time they're repramanded and are instructed to set Ed Forchion free!
Here is his Paypal link for those of you who can contribute toward his support, which includes getting necessary money on his books for supplies and attorney costs as well as for his restaurant and church, and so forth. Anything you can do or give is so Greatly appreciated, and we Thank You on his behalf for your efforts: NJWeedmans_Joint@Yahoo.com
We, on behalf of Ed and all his friends, family, loved ones and supporters would like to give a Special shout out of Thanks and Gratitude to Isaac Avilucea for covering Eddie's situation so awesomely, we Hope you continue as you are a wonderful journalist! Here again is the link to his article which we Highly encourage you to read at your convenience:
As always, we thank you ever so kindly for your continued interest and support in our efforts and we hope you will stay tuned for future updates on this and other ONAC relacted news and information that we believe may just prove to be of interest to you. Blessings to all, may we go in a good way and make good medicine as we do.
