{"id":8620,"date":"2019-01-30T02:47:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T02:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3343747"},"modified":"2019-01-30T02:47:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T02:47:27","slug":"retrial-begins-for-international-church-of-cannabis-co-founder-charged-with-public-consumption-of-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/retrial-begins-for-international-church-of-cannabis-co-founder-charged-with-public-consumption-of-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrial begins for International Church of Cannabis co-founder charged with public consumption of marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/retrial-begins-for-international-church-of-cannabis-co-founder-charged-with-public-consumption-of-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/retrial-begins-for-international-church-of-cannabis-co-founder-charged-with-public-consumption-of-marijuana.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The co-founder of the International Church of Cannabis finally got his day in court Tuesday, nearly two years after Denver police cited him for public pot consumption, and almost a year after a judge declared a mistrial in the same case.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Berke, who co-founded the church with two others in April 2017, is fighting a misdemeanor charge of open and public consumption of marijuana, stemming from a 4\/20 event at the church that year.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Johnny Barajas seated a six-person jury Tuesday in Denver County Court, a jury selection that featured none of the fireworks from a year ago, when prospective jurists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2018\/03\/01\/international-church-of-cannabis-mistrial-420\/100191\/\">openly questioned<\/a> the case presented by city attorneys, leading to the mistrial.<\/p>\n<p>This time around, the jury pool was doubled to 40 people. The trial is expected to take two to three days, the judge said.<\/p>\n<p>In what many believe to a first in Colorado, Barajas provided to both counsels a written definition of \u201copen and public\u201d consumption, which is the heart of the cases against Berke and his co-founders, who will face the same charges in later trials.<\/p>\n<p>The maximum fine in the case is $300. But industry experts believe that while this case may not set full precedent for public consumption of marijuana in Denver, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/01\/26\/public-pot-smoking-denver-church-cannabis\/\">it may finally address a question<\/a>\u00a0that has confused pot smokers throughout the city since legalization five years ago: What\u2019s considered public and what\u2019s considered private?<\/p>\n<p>The two-year dispute stems from an undercover operation by Denver police on the International Church of Cannabis during the church\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/04\/21\/international-church-of-cannabis-denver-420-debut-public-consumption\/78098\/\">private, invitation-only 4\/20 celebration<\/a>, during which many of the 200-plus attendees smoked marijuana in designated consumption areas.<\/p>\n<p>Casey Federico, assistant city attorney, argued in her opening statement Tuesday that this event was considered public because people without invitations \u2014 such as undercover cops \u2014 were able to get into the church that day.<\/p>\n<p>Rob Corry, a marijuana attorney representing Berke, told a different story. In his opening statement to the jury, Corry said Berke and the other owners had their lawyers check with the city attorney\u2019s office before the church opened to make sure everything was above board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe same city attorney\u2019s office here today,\u201d Corry said. \u201cThey said you can smoke cannabis inside as long as it\u2019s invite-only and private.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barajas said he came up with a definition of \u201copenly and publicly\u201d by consulting the dictionary and public and decency ordinances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOpenly means completely free from concealment: exposed to general view or knowledge,\u201d the judge\u2019s instruction said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublicly means in a public place or where the conduct may responsibly be expected to be viewed by a\u00a0member of the public,\u201d the instruction continues. \u201cPublicly also means in public, well known, open, notorious, common, or general as opposed to private, secluded or secret.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Berke read the judge\u2019s document, his eyes lit up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis definition looks great for us,\u201d he told The Denver Post. \u201cThe city is going to have a hard time proving based on this that we weren\u2019t private. Really good news for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Industry experts agreed.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cThis is a dream instruction for the defense,\u201d said Sam Kamin,\u00a0a professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver, when told of the judge\u2019s definition. \u201cThe city\u2019s theory has always been that a place a member of the public could gain access to is public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound at all like the instruction the judge gave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few of Berke\u2019s supporters \u2014 as well as the church\u2019s other two founders \u2014 came to watch the proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have faith in the people of Colorado,\u201d said Lee Molloy, a Church of Cannabis founder. \u201cWe had the mistrial, and now these people (the jurors) seem like they\u2019re not sure why they\u2019re here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ll convict us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The co-founder of the International Church of Cannabis finally got his day in court Tuesday, nearly two years after Denver police cited him for public pot consumption, and almost a year after a judge declared a mistrial in the same case. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,6811,6897,851,6812,8060,8061,6813,77,5577,6814,6815,7280,2437,6886,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[2632,6816,6898,3424,6817,8062,8063,6818,2655,5580,6819,6820,7283,2443,6889,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}