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Cellphone spat at federal courthouse leads to 2-year prison term

A courthouse cellphone spat prior to a bankruptcy meeting led to a federal prison sentence of more than two years last week for a Michigan man who was growing marijuana at his Flint home.

The government’s sentencing memorandum says Lawrence McManaman argued with security officers at the federal courthouse in Flint on Oct. 8, 2013, about the cellphone ban that applies there, took his cellphone back to his vehicle and then re-entered the courthouse and argued further. He also made a complaint about a security officer with U.S. Marshals Service and allegedly told a supervisor during a subsequent phone conversation that he would “take matters into his own hands” if he didn’t receive an apology, MLive.com reports.

After an unidentified source gave the Marshals Service texts showing McManaman with a long gun equipped with a scope and notes he wrote listing a court security supervisor’s address and the names of his wife and children, a threat investigation was launched. the sentencing memorandum states. A search of McManaman’s home turned up a 45-marijuana plant growing operation, a 12-gauge shotgun and a loaded handgun, authorities say.

Attorney Robert Dunn represents McManaman. He told MLive.com that the firearms were for home protection only, with no connection to drug trafficking.

However, McManaman got 30 months on Jan. 22 after pleading guilty to charges of manufacturing marijuana and being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. It is possible the feds will pursue prosecution of an additional charge of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime against him, but Dunn said he hopes that charge will be dropped, the article reports.