Tag: alabama

Alabama Judge Will Hear Lawsuit From Parents Over State’s Medical Marijuana Delays

A judge will hold a hearing later this month in a lawsuit filed by parents of children potentially eligible to receive medical cannabis under Alabama’s long-delayed program.

The five parents—Dustin Chandler, Cristina Cain, Catherine Hall, Megan Jackson and Kari Forsyth—want the court to require the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) to establish a patient registry for medical cannabis, citing delays in access to the program.

“Plaintiffs also bring this petition in their individual capacities because they have suffered specific injuries as a result of the Commissioner’s failure to establish the patient and caregiver registry and seek to vindicate their own private rights,” the parents claimed in the lawsuit. The are also suing “in the name of the State of Alabama to uphold the Compassion Act’s requirement.”

The commission argued in a motion to dismiss filed in May that the lawsuit lacks standing and asks the AMCC to take steps already taken or beyond its control.

“The Commission applauds the early advocacy of those among the Petitioners who supported passage of the [Compassion Act]. Regretfully, it appears the Petitioners have been misinformed about the status of the Patient Registry and why it has not yet been populated with the names of eligible patients,” counsel for AMCC wrote in the motion.

The plaintiffs said in their filing that each child “has a condition that is treatable with medical cannabis” but does not provide any further details.

The AMCC states in the motion that a patient registry has, in fact, been established and is being maintained at a significant expense. But according to the motion to dismiss, no patients are currently registered because physicians cannot be certified until certain licensing requirements for cultivators, processors, transporters and dispensaries are met.

According to the AMCC’s filing, rules established by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners (BME) dictate that physician certification is dependent on issuing at least one license in each of the licensing categories, or to one integrated facility.

Keep reading

‘Snooping Around’: Government Officials Under Fire for Bypassing State Constitution

‘It makes it very dangerous when you’re hunting with rifles and people aren’t wearing colors that make them easy to see.’

A court is being asked to act against state officials who bypass the requirements of their own state constitution.

The situation is that while the Alabama Constitution “makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause,” agents from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources simply cite a statute to ignore that requirement.

The Institute for Justice now is working with three Alabama residents to sue over the practice that has agents invading and searching private property not only without a warrant, but without consent.

The plaintiffs are Killen residents Dalton Boley and Regina Williams and Muscle Shoals resident Dale Liles, who all took action after facing “multiple” privacy intrusions by game wardens.

None ever has been charged with hunting violations, “yet game wardens have snooped around on their properties without warrants on multiple occasions. That’s because of an Alabama statute that allows game wardens to ‘enter upon any land … in the performance of their duty.’ Whether it’s a posted field or residential yard, the statute gives wardens broad power to roam around private property without any warrant,” the IJ said.

But, IJ lawyer Suranjan Sen explained, “The Alabama Constitution makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause, and game wardens are not exempt from the Constitution.”

Williams owns 10 acres in Killen and had used it for decades, but as she aged she gave her neighbor, Boley, and his family permission to use it.

Then the game wardens arrived.

Keep reading

Alabama Governor Faces Contrasting Calls To Sign Or Veto Hemp Regulation Bill On Her Desk

A bill aimed at regulating consumable hemp products has landed on Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) desk, but its future is uncertain.

HB 445, sponsored by Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest), would establish regulations for consumable hemp products in Alabama, but the bill’s language and potential consequences have led the hemp industry to suggest the possibility of litigation and led to uncertainty among lawmakers, business owners, patients and lobbyists.

“It is my hope that the governor signs the bill this week. I think it’s a good piece of legislation. I think it’s a bipartisan piece of legislation, and certainly, we have to get the guardrails up on this industry,” Whitt said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Key provisions of the bill include:

  • Testing and labeling requirements for all consumable hemp products.
  • Caps of 10 milligrams per individually wrapped product, with a cap of 40 milligrams per package.
  • Authorization for the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board to license retailers of these products.
  • Restrictions on retail establishments selling hemp products.
  • Prohibition of sales to minors.
  • Prohibition of smokable hemp products and restrictions on online sales and direct delivery.
  • Imposition of an excise tax on consumable hemp products.

The bill defines “consumable hemp product” broadly as any finished product intended for human or animal consumption that contains any part of the hemp plant or its derivatives, but explicitly bans smokable hemp products and certain psychoactive cannabinoids.

Keep reading

Grand jury recommends Alabama police department be ‘immediately abolished’

An Alabama grand jury has recommended that a city’s police department be “immediately abolished,” finding there is a “rampant culture of corruption,” officials said Wednesday while announcing the indictment of five of the agency’s officers, including its police chief.

Five Hanceville police officers were arrested and charged amid a probe into the department, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said. The spouse of one of the officers was also charged, he said.

“This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law,” Crocker said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Crocker provided limited details on the case. Though the investigation encompassed the department’s evidence room and the death of a Hanceville dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, who was found dead from a toxic drug combination at work, officials said.

The Cullman County grand jury found that the Hanceville Police Department has “failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large,” making the evidence “unusable,” Crocker said.

The grand jury further found that Willingham’s death was “the direct result of the Hanceville Police Department’s negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life,” Crocker said.

Keep reading

Alabama Teen Killed During ‘No-Knock’ Drug Raid Had His Hands Raised, Lawsuit Says

A 16-year-old teenager had his hands raised when he was fatally shot by police during an unauthorized “no-knock” drug raid in Mobile, Alabama, last year, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed by his mother in federal court earlier this month.

The lawsuit against the City of Mobile and several anonymous Mobile police officers says Randall Adjessom came out of his room holding a gun when he heard someone break down the front door of the house where he lived with his mother, grandmother, aunt, and sisters. When he realized the intruders were police, he put his hands in the air and stepped back, but a Mobile Police Department (MPD) SWAT officer shot him four times.

“The complaint is replete with revelations from our pre-suit investigation,” civil rights attorneys representing Adjessom’s mother said in a press release accompanying the suit, “perhaps none more repulsive than the fact that MPD body-worn camera (BWC) video of the shooting clearly shows Randall begin to retreat after realizing the intruders into his family home were members of the police force when he was repeatedly shot and killed in cold blood.”

And after he was shot, the suit says, police left Adjessom to bleed out on the floor for four minutes before half-heartedly rendering medical aid.

If true, the lawsuit’s narrative—which purports to be backed by video evidence, internal affairs reviews, and a recent independent audit of the Mobile Police Department—is another tragic example of what happens when the drug war, unregulated SWAT teams, and the Second Amendment right to self-defense mix.

An MPD SWAT team executed a “no-knock” search warrant on November 18, 2023, as part of an investigation into Adjessom’s older adult brother for suspected marijuana sales. However, the lawsuit says Adjessom’s brother did not live at the residence the MPD acquired a search warrant for—only Adjessom, who was a minor, and several women in his family.  

The lawsuit says there were numerous problems with the raid besides the absence of its only articulated target: MPD officers intentionally didn’t evaluate the risk to civilians in its pre-warrant threat assessment or note the presence of civilians in its search warrant affidavit; didn’t obtain authorization for a nighttime raid from a judge, supervisor, or prosecutor; and failed to announce themselves until after they had breached the front door and entered the house. 

All those errors became a force that swept together—like a malevolent current—the MPD SWAT officers and Randall Adjessom, who came out of his bedroom and turned into the hallway holding a gun with a laser sight.

Keep reading

Radical Leftist Who Detonated Bomb Outside Republican Alabama AG’s Office Sentenced to Prison – DOJ Resisted Charges Because Bomber is Transgender: Whistleblower

As previously reported, an explosive device was detonated outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s office earlier this year in February.

According to reports, the explosive device was detonated early in the morning on February 24.

The bomber, Kyle Calvert, was arrested on April 10, 2024.

No one was injured in the explosion.

“In the early hours of Saturday, February 24, an explosive device was detonated outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office building in Montgomery. Thankfully, no staff or personnel were injured by the explosion. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will be leading the investigation, and we are urging anyone with information to contact them immediately,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) said in a statement.

According to the plea agreement, Kyle Calvert admitted to manufacturing the explosive device and using nails and screws as shrapnel.

Calvert also supported Antifa and placed stickers that read “Support your local Antifa” on downtown buildings. Law enforcement said Calvert claimed he has no affiliation with Antifa.

The FBI/DOJ on Thursday announced Kyle Calvert was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

“Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 27, of Irondale, Alabama, was sentenced today to nine years in prison for the malicious use of an explosive device outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office in Montgomery,” the Justice Department said in a press release on Thursday.

“Kyle Calvert attacked the Alabama Attorney General’s Office with a shrapnel-filled explosive and then fled the scene, but this sentence ensures he will not escape accountability for his crime,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Acts of violence like this one against our public institutions endanger public servants and entire communities, and they must not be tolerated. I am grateful to the FBI, ATF, and our state and local law enforcement partners for ensuring accountability for this attack, and for the work they do every day to protect our communities.”

“Today’s sentencing is the final step holding Kyle Calvert accountable for detonating a shrapnel-filled explosive device outside a public office in downtown Montgomery,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “This case demonstrates the FBI’s continued commitment to working with our partners to bring to justice anyone who attempts violence to injure or intimidate members of our community.”

Keep reading

Overrun By Haitian Migrants, These Alabama Towns Could Be The Next Springfield

As van loads of Haitian migrants began arriving over the summer, residents in Alabama started to wonder whether their already-swelling community could handle the influx. 

Not satisfied with the answers they were getting from local officials, Jarrod and Amanda Schulte started investigating for themselves. They soon found themselves walking around north Athens, a run-down part of the city where migrants from all over the world live in dilapidated homes.

“What we found was not very pretty,” Jarrod Schulte told The Daily Wire. “The city of Athens, our politicians, they all need to do better.”

The Schultes and others in Alabama worry that their cities will become the next Springfield, Ohio, where a large influx of Haitian migrants was accompanied by a surge in crime and traffic accidents. Springfield made national headlines after former President Donald Trump mentioned the city during the September presidential debate, during a discussion of the impacts of mass migration on small cities across the country, not just in border states. Similar problems have arisen in Pennsylvania and Indiana, where residents worry their small cities don’t have enough resources to handle the influx.

The Daily Wire traveled to Athens and spoke to more than a dozen current residents, consisting of both longtime residents and migrants. The concern is not only that migrants are impacting the lives of those who were already there, straining already scarce resources in the town, but also the lives that migrants lead upon arrival.

Pierre-Marc, a 44-year-old Haitian migrant in Athens whom the Schultes befriended, is currently living alongside four other Haitian adults and two children in a rundown home in north Athens. 

When Pierre-Marc first met the Schultes, the facade of his home was covered in peeling paint and dotted with cracked windows. There was no furniture in the home, and residents washed their clothes in the sink they shared.

Keep reading

DOJ Sues Alabama to Permit Migrant Voting

Bring on the election fraud! The Democrats will not stop until every illegal migrant has cast a vote for Harris-Walz. The establishment has abruptly halted every attempt to restore America’s electoral process. Now, the Department of Justice is suing the state of Alabama for removing illegal migrants from voter roles.

The DOJ is demanding that the state of Alabama register everyone it removed from the voting registration, claiming that the state also included legal citizens. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen believes that 3,251 illegal voters were identified and promptly removed 84 days prior to the election. The DOJ has also claimed that Alabama has violated the National Voter Registration Act that prohibits the removal of applicants 90 days prior to election day.

Then we have 14 states that do not require voter identification. In Arizona, an astounding 5% of voters may or may not be citizens of the United States. Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s secretary of state, claims that over 200,000 registered voters simply have not confirmed their citizenship. The state of Arizona insists that there was a glitch at the Department of Motor Vehicles that failed to ask applicants to confirm citizenship. Questioning this madness makes you a conspiracy theorist. “When this goes public, it is going to have all of the conspiracy theorists in the globe — in the world — coming back to re-litigate the past three elections, at least in Arizona,” Katie Hobbs, the Democratic governor, said. “And it’s going to validate all of their theories about illegal voting in our elections, even though we all know that’s not true.”

Migrants with no loyalty or ties to the United States WILL BE VOTING FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The Supreme Court must step in and restore some law and order.

Keep reading

Mobile police officer arrested, terminated for stealing packages: MPD

A Mobile police officer was arrested and terminated Thursday after he was accused of stealing packages shipped and addressed to another individual at his apartment complex.

According to a Mobile Police Department news release, police officials learned Wednesday, Oct. 2, of an allegation made against a police officer at the Village at Midtown Apartments at 320 Stanton Road.

The allegation was that the officer and his wife had opened packages that had been shipped and addressed to another individual at their apartment complex.

Mobile police began investigating and ultimately terminated 23-year-old Patrick Dwayne Deas from the police department. He was later arrested and taken to Mobile Metro Jail.

Deas is charged with fourth-degree theft of property. He is scheduled for a bond hearing on Oct. 4.

Keep reading

DoJ Sues Alabama For Voter Roll Purge Program Targeting Noncitizens

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama, accusing the state of breaking the law with its voter roll purge program that targets individuals who are—or once were—noncitizens.

The DOJ announced the legal action in a Sept. 27 press release, in which the agency contends that Alabama’s program, which targets individuals with noncitizen identification numbers, violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) by removing potentially eligible voters within the federally mandated 90-day “Quiet Period” before an election.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said that Alabama’s actions risk disenfranchising eligible voters just weeks before a key federal election.

“As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law,” Clarke said in a statement. “The Quiet Period Provision of federal law exists to prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts.”

The NVRA’s Quiet Period provision prohibits states from conducting systematic voter roll purges within 90 days of a federal election to prevent errors and ensure eligible voters are not wrongfully removed.

The legal dispute centers around a program initiated by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen that aimed to remove noncitizens registered to vote in Alabama from the state’s voter rolls.

Keep reading