Mr. Targowski was pleased with the Supreme Court's order, and looks forward to the Court of Appeals' opinion on remand. 

Police were called to the scene along Kalamazoo Avenue June 13 by a federal security guard who noticed that Holdridge's bike, parked near the two protesters, had a homemade sticker that read "This bike is a pipe bomb." 

Holdridge said the sticker is a reference to a Florida-based punk folk band by that name and that he forgot the sticker was even on the bike. But he didn't tell police that.

"I didn't enlighten them. I was naive," said Holdridge, whose protest was part of the Occupy Kalamazoo movement. A 53-year-old Kalamazoo resident, Holdridge is unemployed and on disability.

Instead, Holdridge told the officers that the sign was "was just a joke" and that he prefers comedy to make a point. He also said that pipe bombs "can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $99.99."

Officers were not amused.

Holdridge was arrested on a charge of making a false bomb threat, a felony, and he spent the next 24 hours in the Kalamazoo County Jail. 

The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office reduced the charge to disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor.

However, Holdridge's attorney, John Targowski of Kalamazoo, said officials weren't aware until a meeting Wednesday with an assistant prosecutor that the sticker was referring to a punk band. When Targowski told the assistant prosecutor that the sticker actually was the name of a band -- and called up the band's website on his smart phone to prove his point -- the assistant prosecutor offered a plea bargain that included dropping the charge in exchange for 40 hours of community service and psychological counseling.

Holdridge refused, and wants a jury trial to prove his innocence. That trial is set for 8 a.m. Aug. 28 in Kalamazoo County District Court.

"I don't want to do this," Holdridge said. "I feel responsible to the (Occupy Kalamazoo) movement to shine a light on this. ... It's costing me hundreds of dollars and the city thousands of dollars, but I need to prove a point."

And that point is?

"The point is, we live in a police state," Holdridge said. "I didn't do anything wrong. I was well within my rights to sit on the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building. ... (They) way, way overreacted."

While perhaps Holdridge should have mentioned to the officers that the sticker was referring to a punk band, Targowski said, "he was swarmed by all these SWAT-type, ninja guys and he got intimidated.  ... At that point, I think he figured he couldn't talk his way out of it.

"It was all a big misunderstanding," Targowski said.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink said he's limited in what he can say about a pending case. But, he said, "these are always difficult cases" when someone might appear to be making bomb threat.

"We have to take every threat seriously and it does involve police time and it does disturb a lot of people," Fink said. "We have to balance the impact on security concerns versus the actual actions of the person."

The Wikipedia entry for This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb lists four incidents between 2001 and 2011 when police where called because of a bike with a sticker promoting the band, including a 2009 evacuation of a terminal at Memphis International Airport.

The Pensacola, Fla., band was formed in 1997 and broke up in 2011. They started out playing new wave music, the switched to country, but they are most associated with performing punk-folk music.

Julie Mack is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette.

 

Some other Section 8 loose ends that are clarified include:

 

(1) That the medical opinion that marihuana may be palliative has to occur after the enactment of the MMMA and before the commission of the alleged criminal offense (i.e.,  no post-arrest medical certification for a valid Section 8 defense is allowed).

 

(2) All Section 8 affirmative defense hearings must occur in a pre-trial evidentiary hearing, and can’t be “reserved” to be asserted for the first time at jury trial.

 

(3) At the affirmative defense hearing, if no reasonable jury could conclude defendant meets burden of Section 8, then court must deny the affirmative defense, and the affirmative defense may not be asserted at trial; instead, one must apply for interlocutory appeal.

 

(4) If at the affirmative defense hearing, the prima facie evidence of all the elements of Section 8 are shown by the defendant, but material questions of fact exist, then the judge can refuse to dismiss; in that event, the jury gets to hear both sides as to facts and decide the affirmative defense.

 

It is the opinion of Targowski & Grow, PLLC, that this change in the law will dramatically change the landscape of MMMA courtroom litigation and broadly protect more people than before. In our opinion it restores the original intent of the MMMA to broadly protect registered patients and provide an honest opportunity to present the facts to a jury, thereby preventing convictions for unregistered patients who chose to use of marihuana pursuant to a bona fide doctor opinion.

 

Targowski & Grow, PLLC, had successfully secured dismissals under Section 8 before the Court of Appeals blocked that route, and now that the law has been returned to its former strength, we look forward to succeeding again in courts across Michigan. Please contact if you find yourself the target of an investigation or charged with a violation of the MMMA.

(The cases were The People of the State of Michigan vs Larry Steven King, case number 142850, and The People of the State of Michigan vs Alexander Edward Kolanek, case numbers 142695 and 142712.)