Michael Teague
Tustin, CA
medical marijuana patient Michael Teague was raided by the Orange County
Sheriff and DEA on April 2, 2002
for cultivating just over 100 plants. His case was dismissed in state court, at
which point the federal government filed charges against him. Teague had a
federal bench trial in February 2003 and was convicted of cultivation. He was
then sentenced in June 2003 to 18 months in prison. While in prison, Teague
attempted to appeal his federal conviction, and in October 2004, on Teague's
behalf, ASA filed a motion for
release on bail pending appeal. Teague was refused release on bail pending
his appeal, but was soon let out of prison on supervised release. ASA then
filed an appeal
in July 2005 on behalf of Teague raising three issues: (1) violation of his due
process rights because of appellate delay, (2) violation of the Tenth
Amendment, and (3) the improper sentence of four years of supervised release.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed Teague’s conviction, but reversed
his sentence and remanded the case to district court for re-sentencing. On
remand, the district court stated that it would terminate Teague's term of
supervised released if he performed adequately and reapplied in one-year. This happened and, on September 24, 2007, the court terminated early Teague’s supervised
release.
