On the eve of her June trial in Colorado Springs, Elisa Kappelmann received unasked-for advice from the man preparing to prosecute her.
?He said I should sell my cannabis business and open a liquor store,? recalled Kappelmann, co-owner of Southern Colorado Medical Marijuana LLC, 2815 N. El Paso St. ?I told him that we were in the business of helping people, not killing them.
?And then I told my lawyer to embarrass him in court.?
Kappelmann, a 52-year-old former Hewlett Packard employee, is uncompromising when it comes to medical marijuana rights, and her all-chips-in approach paid off.
Whether anyone was ?embarrassed? at her three-day trial on felony drug charges is a matter of opinion, but the jury?s verdict was decisive: Not guilty on all counts.
For Kappelmann and family, the June 11 acquittal brought a hoped-for reprieve from two bitter years of emotional turmoil and an estimated $50,000 worth of business losses and legal fees ???? a price Kappelmann was willing to pay to preserve her reputation and salvage her stake in a promising new business.
She insists the dispensary was careful to abide the state?s licensing requirements, and she has characterized her arrest as an aggressive law enforcement action aimed at striking fear in Colorado Springs? burgeoning marijuana trade.
?We would not let them bully us, and we won,? Kappelmann said with grave seriousness during an interview at the dispensary, which she co-owns with longtime boyfriend Don McKay, a former Wells Fargo home mortgage analyst.
Her fighting spirit appears to have proved infectious among medical marijuana growers in El Paso County, where disputes over licensing, plant counts and patient rolls have led to numerous drug cases in the past several years.
Many of those charged settled for plea bargains out of necessity, say Colorado Springs attorneys and medical marijuana advocates.
Some may exceed income guidelines for court-appointed representation but lack the funds for a private attorney. Others will accept felony convictions and everything they entail to avoid the expense, risk and publicity involved with going to trial.
Since Kappelmann?s acquittal last June, however, a half-dozen medical marijuana defendants have taken their fight to trial and won, said Colorado Springs defense attorney Clifton Black, who argues the message from juries is clear: that regulatory agencies, not prosecutors, should settle disputes over licensing issues.
At 4-foot-11 with friendly eyes and a bright smile, Kappelmann is an unlikely fighter.
On a recent morning at her dispensary, she stopped to hug a dispensary patient while detailing her brief but turbulent history in Colorado?s Green Rush.
Kappelmann landed in legal trouble shortly after leaving Hewlett-Packard in 2011 to join McKay in building a dispensary from the ground up.
Ardent supporters of Amendment 20, which legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in Colorado, they were drawn by the idea of offering relief to those with pain.
?Between the two of us, we go, let?s quit our day jobs and go at this full-time,? McKay recalled. ?They had raided us 30 days later.?
Kappelmann ? but not McKay ? was eventually charged after the May 2011 raid on a warehouse they leased to grow pot.
Police said Kappelmann and McKay were growing 99 marijuana plants without necessary documentation from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which maintains a medical marijuana registry. Authorities also seized several grams of dried marijuana and some marijuana cigarettes.
The couple said drug agents tore their patient paperwork from the walls after knocking down a heavy steel door with a battering ram.
?We would have let them in. We didn?t have anything to hide,? McKay said.
At least six other marijuana growers were also arrested in the raid that led to charges against Kappelmann. Those defendants ? who worked for other marijuana businesses ? all took plea agreements, court records show.
Because she was acquitted, nothing in the law bars Kappelmann from continuing to operate a dispensary. She and McKay intend to continue growing their business.
With last year?s passage of Colorado?s Amendment 64, which permits recreational use, the couple said they will likely branch out with separate retail stores focusing on that market.
In the meantime, Kappelmann says she is focusing on the center?s 200 patients, who suffer from cancer, recurring migraines and chronic pain.
The center?s patient rolls grew by at least one after Kappelman?s trial. Days afterward, Kappelmann said, a juror who sat in on her trial phoned the dispensary and asked Kappelmann to arrange treatment for her mother, who suffers from chronic pain.
?We?re helping sick people, and I truly, truly believe in my heart that this is the right thing to do. And I think we need to educate the public.?
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Source: http://www.gazette.com/articles/eve-149376-springs-preparing.html
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