Drug Charges Dismissed for Ed Rosenthal

A federal judge told prosecutors on March 16th to consider dropping marijuana-growing charges against Ed Rosenthal, the self-proclaimed marijuana “guru.”^[1] The judge also granted the Department of Justice's request to delay Rosenthal's retrial, which was scheduled to begin Monday, March 19th.^[2]

A federal appeals court overturned Rosenthal's conviction last year because of juror misconduct; the juror had consulted an attorney on how to decide the case.^[3] Rosenthal was indicted again by federal prosecutors in October for the same marijuana operation, but the prosecutors added four counts of hiding money and five counts of filing false tax returns. ^[4]

However this week Rosenthal's tax and money laundering charges were dismissed after his lawyers successfully argued that prosecutors were merely retaliating against him for previous public complaints made regarding his earlier trial.^[5] The judge cited judicial economy as his reason for throwing out the charges.^[6]

We have previously discussed the crime of money laundering, here.

We Have previously discussed Tax Fraud at length, here.

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^[1] Judge dismisses tax, money laundering charges against ganja guru, AP (via CBS47.tv) March 16, 2007.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.