ST. CLAIR COUNTY (CBS Detroit) With her four teenagers inside, Ginnifer Hency’s house was raided by officers who suspected she was using and selling marijuana.
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In fact, she was. Hency, a multiple sclerosis patient with a medical marijuana card, was charged with intent to deliver, “even though I’m allowed to possess and deliver,” Hency said, in testimony before the Michigan House Committee.
Medical marijuana use had been suggested by her neurologist, Hency said, adding that she can’t take run-of-the-mill pain medication because of a heart condition.
In the end, she wasn’t bound over for trial.
And 10 months after her house was raided, she testified, her TVs, ipads, her children’s iPads, a ladder, and more, still haven’t been returned to her.
“Why a ladder, why my vibrator? I don’t know either,” Hency said in testimony.
She added forfeiture laws were meant for the confiscation of items used to manufacture and sell drugs, including scales and grow lights.
That stuff was left in her house, she said. But valuable electronics and personal items were taken.
Hency recently visited the St. Clair Prosecutor’s Office to request the return of her items. She said someone in the prosecutor’s office informed her he could still go after her in civil court, and refused to return her belongings.
Contacted by CBS Detroit, Prosecutor Michael Wendling said he had never spoken to her, but: “we are looking at the criminal dismissal issued in the opinion … and then we’ll review it with the drug task force and decide how to proceed from there.”
Wendling questioned whether a vibrator was removed from the home, though he said the ladder was confiscated. He said he was supplied with all the forfeiture paperwork, complete with a list of items that were taken.
“There is no indication in any of that documentation that a vibrator was mentioned or certainly taken,” he said.
Is it possible it was taken and not documented? “It’s hard to say anything is impossible,” the prosecutor said. He added, though, that he trusts the officers.
By Michigan law, the government may seize your business, home, cars, and any property of any kind if it’s deemed to have been obtained through proceeds from drug activity.
Per Raw Story, the Michigan House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill that would require local law enforcement agencies to report forfeitures to the state police, “and it would raise the standard of proof required for civil forfeiture in drug cases.”
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