Police arrest cancer patient 16 months after raid

It was November 2013 when police in black masks stormed cancer patient Thomas Williams' rural St. Joseph County home, seizing cash, his car, his phone and his medical marijuana plants, saying he was over his limit of 12. They did not charge him with a crime.

Williams, 72, told the Free Press his story, part of a Feb. 23 front-page article on questionable police seizures. Less than three weeks later, those same police showed up on his doorstep, this time with an arrest warrant, based on the marijuana they seized 16 months ago, and threw him in jail.

His attorney, Daniel Grow, learned of the arrest over the weekend. Williams, a retired carpenter who is disabled, was arrested Thursday and spent the night in the Calhoun County Jail. He was released when his family posted bond.

"I'm still investigating what went on here," Grow said. "But I can say I will be defending this aggressively."

Williams has a medical marijuana card that allows him to grow a dozen plants. Police, in charging him last week with drug manufacturing and conspiracy, say that during the 2013 raid, they found 24 plants. Williams says the extra plants were clones, without roots, that he planned to use to replace existing plants that were failing.

Police targeted Williams in the 2013 raid because his name showed up on documents related to a raid they had conducted on a compassion club in Battle Creek, an hour away and in a different county. Williams told the Free Press he had not been associated with the club for more than a year because of his ill health.

The Michigan State Police, which runs the Southwest Enforcement Team that conducted the raids, said Williams' arrest was part of an investigation into the marijuana dispensary and that it is not unusual for arrests to take place months after a raid.

"Thomas R. Williams was one of four suspects arrested in an ongoing investigation by the Southwest Enforcement Team (SWET) that dates back to September of 2013," said Shanon Banner, a Michigan State Police spokeswoman, in an e-mail to the Free Press. "The arrest warrants were authorized on March 11, 2015, by the Calhoun County Prosecutor's Office following a review of a warrant request from SWET that was sent to the prosecutor's office in mid-December 2014. It is not uncommon for complex criminal investigations to span months or even years, due to the amount of evidence that is gathered and the numerous reviews needed."

Calhoun County prosecutors said they wrote the warrant after a lengthy police investigation.

"That has recently been concluded, enabling me to review all of the necessary documents to charge the co-defendants," assistant prosecutor Angelique Camfield-Kuiper said in an e-mail. And she denied the warrants were issued because of Williams' story in the Detroit Free Press. "Your article, whatever it was, has no bearing as to whether this office prosecutes a case, thus it would not hasten or delay that prosecution."

This is the second time the team has arrested Michigan residents who went public with their stories of police forfeitures.

The team raided Wladyslaw Kowalski's family farm in Bloomingdale Township in rural Van Buren County in September 2014 after spotting his marijuana plants from a helicopter. Kowalski, 60, an engineer with a Ph.D., has a medical marijuana card and was providing area cancer patients marijuana for free. Police say he was over his limit and destroyed the plants and confiscated property, including a generator he uses to heat his home during power outages. They also began paperwork to take away the farm, which the Kowalski family has owned for more than 50 years. They did not charge him with a crime.

Three months later, he was featured on the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's website, in a story about questionable police forfeitures. He was arrested two days later — police came in the middle of the night — and charged with two felonious counts of manufacturing marijuana with intent to deliver and a misdemeanor offense of giving away free marijuana. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The Mackinac Center, which has been advocating for forfeiture reform, said Williams' arrest is one more indication that laws need to change.

"Cases like these highlight the need to end the legal practice in Michigan for law enforcement to take property from individuals before they are charged and convicted of a crime," said Mike Reitz, the center's executive vice president for public policy, in an e-mail. "The Michigan Legislature should take a comprehensive look at the issue; Speaker (Kevin) Cotter has announced that reform is a major priority for the House. "

Michigan's civil asset forfeiture laws — in which police can seize cash and property and keep it without proving a crime has been committed — are considered among the worst in the nation, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that helps citizens fight to regain their property. The institute surveyed all 50 states in 2010 and gave Michigan a D-, noting that there are few safeguards to protect citizens from unfair seizures.

Under Michigan law, the police agency seizing the property gets to keep it. In 2013, law enforcement agencies in the state seized and kept more than $24 million in property and cash.

The Southwest Enforcement Team that arrested Kowalski and Williams seized $376,612 that year. The team operates in Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties.

Contact L.L. Brasier: 248-858-2262