Perhaps swayed by the same weaknesses I noticed, a Moody County jury today found Colorado entrepreneur Eric Hagen not guilty of anything Attorney General Marty Jackley accused him of in his interactions with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and their aborted marijuana resort. Hagen says Jackley is guilty of using the courts for political purposes:
Eric Hagen, the president of Monarch America, said following the verdict that South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley ruined his company with a politically motivated prosecution that he had no jurisdiction to pursue.
“He tanked our company by spreading lies and rumors,” Hagen said. “It was 100 percent politically motivated. This was simply a media ploy for Jackley because he’s running for governor in 2018” [Jonathan Ellis, “Eric Hagen Found Not Guilty in Flandreau Marijuana Trial,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2017.05.24].
Boy, if this prosecution was a media ploy, it just backfired. After squeezing a plea deal out of Hagen’s business partner, Jackley still couldn’t put together a winning case.
Might get the same verdict in Muslim threat case. It doesn’t appear to be that strong for the prosecution, either.
Now, sue Jackboot and the state for high crimes and abuse of power. Pull a trump on their sorry behinds and take them to court. Go for 5 million and change.
Beware Mr. Hagen. Marty J may just claim the jurors were grossly and feloniously hoodwinked. A special session may immediately be called claiming a legislative emergency to repeal this verdict, citing out of state money and influence on the court system. Jurors were obviously not paying attention when the government spoke. Marty doesn’t lose, doggone it!!
Mr. Lansing, here in South Dakota the Attorney General may not call a special session of the legislatures. Perhaps in Colorado, but not here.
Oh, don’t worry, here in Indian Country ‘ol Marty is well-known for being the Indian-hater that he is and it won’t be long before he picks one of the other eight tribes in the state to persecute. Hopefully, Indian Country will be one of the primary blockages to his gubernatorial aspirations. Cory, don’t be surprised if he tries coming after this blog and those who post on it. I wouldn’t put it past him at all. And, having once been a paralegal and being married to an attorney, I’m well aware of just how much he stretches and pushes the law to try to fit it to what he wants, including his political and theocratic philosophies.
Hagen needs to sue him from here to Kingdom Come for false and malicious prosecution. He’d likely prevail.
Hard to say if a “malicious prosecution ” suit will prevail, but it’s pretty obvious,t he AG is out of touch.
Jackley may have realized how weak his case was and thus sent a junior assistant to try it for him. If it had been a civil suit for damages there probably would not have been a lawyer who would take the case. Prosecutors need not trifle with such trivial matters. They have a big hammer and even when it misses, someone usually gets hurt.
Laurisa, make sure the SDDP’s tribal organizer touches on that issue with your neighbors while recruiting voters to keep Jackley from winning next year!
Curt, good note about the staffing for the prosecution. Jackley was on SDPB over the noon hour yesterday while the jury was deliberateing, and I got the sense he was already trying to direct our attention to other drug issues.
The Republican options for SD Governor make me want to cry on the inside.
Now that rural people have largely stopped thinking for themselves, Marty Jackley could body slam a reporter the night before his election and get away with it. In fact, he’s prolly famous enough, in South Dakota, to “grab [women] by the pussy” and get away with that too.
It takes indecent and/or very stupid people to vote FOR indecent people in government.