Federal Justice Officials Ignore Questions About Hawaii Pot Minister
12/14/2011
Civil Beat
Transparency is a hallmark of the American justice system, a characteristic that — Guantánamo aside — sets us apart from many other societies.
But journalists doing stories on terror suspects might have more success in obtaining information about those cases than Civil Beat has had in the case of Roger Christie, the Hilo marijuana minister awaiting trial on federal drug charges.
Christie ran a THC Ministry in Hilo for a decade before being arrested July 8, 2010, on federal charges of conspiring to manufacture, distribute and possess marijuana. Since then, he has spent his time awaiting trial in the beige stone Honolulu Federal Detention Center.
I wanted to find out why Christie is still in lockup. But it wasn't as easy as you might think.
Messages to both the the federal attorneys representing and defending Christie have not been returned. Meanwhile, the warden running the prison where Christie is detained won't let me visit him.
