By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The woman who secured a business license for the short-lived Hub City Natural Medicine was convicted yesterday of maintaining a building for controlled substances purposes.
A jury in Lewis County Superior Court took only about a half hour to find Lauri Spangler guilty, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meager said.
Last spring, her trial on the same charge ended in a hung jury after about five hours of deliberations.
Spangler was charged in September 2012 in connection with what the city of Centralia said was an illegal marijuana dispensary, which was raided and shut down soon after it appeared on Tower Avenue the year before.
The storefront opened in early 2011 with a city-granted business license, one that slid past officials with a description of its nature as “education and sales of natural medicine.”
Police Chief Bob Berg’s initials were among those placed on the application as it went through the approval process, although jurors were told Berg authorized someone in his department to affix his initials to such paperwork.
Judge Nelson Hunt presided over the two-day trial.
Spangler was the only one of four individuals in the case to go to trial. The others’ cases have been settled with plea agreements.
Voters decriminalized recreational use of marijuana for those over 21 at the end of 2012, and the state is currently the midst of issuing business licenses to growers, processors and retailers.
Meagher said the standard sentencing range for Spangler’s offense is between one year and a day up to 20 months in prison.
Spangler appeared in court briefly this afternoon to set a date for sentencing, but her lawyer was unavailable, so she will return next Thursday to set a date.
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For background, read about the 2013 trial, “Centralia marijuana store case goes to trial” from Wednesday May 15, 2013, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
The truth about Marijuana. Cannabis http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/02/americans-finally-understand-that-marijuana-is-less-harmful-than-alcohol/
Now that this case is over i’m going to weigh in on the facts. I took a plea bargin served 4 hours in jail and paid no fine. I was the owner of Dirtycopsmustregister.com now taken off the internet due to death threats from police officers nation wide. The facts are clear since i had control of the building most of the time. Lori Spangler never sold marijuana from this place called Hub City Medicine. She only put her name on the paperwork, that is it. Look at the rest of the state right now, Marijuna is being sold, and was being sold during the time Hub City was raided. Also there was no moritorium in place while this training center was raided. The problem here is hypocritic, marijuana is sold everywhere in Washington State and was during this raid. Marijuana is here to stay, im glad i had participated in this facility. Look at marijuana laws right now, we have won the fight. Just like the Black Panthers were called terrorist’s in the 60’s now there called freedom fighters now. Remember Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism!
Don’t matter……
The name says it all. Black Market anything leads to violence.
guilty but the judge should sentence her to 100 hours community service no jail time. This is now legal and admittedly a low impact crime if any at all. Get ur priorities up dated its 2014 not 1990 hillbilly opportunist prosecutors.
What a waste of time and resources, while the meth monkeys run rampant~
Perhaps not.
Ever meet a “meth monkey” who did not start out with pot?
The laws are the laws folks. She was dealing a “drug” that was yet legalized at the time of the investigation. Even now days it is only legal if you have a State license to sell or grow. Spangler is a great example of using the medical marijuana laws to make money. People like her are why legit patients are having to jump through hoops to get their meds. Her boyfriend is Colby Cave. Take a look into his history and see his convictions.
Hey, we should all be happy there are SOME cases Jonathan Meyer isn’t afraid to prosecute…too bad he’s only willing to pick off low-hanging fruit like this one.
What a waste of time and resources, while the meth monkeys run rampant~
An example of local govt. wasting money and resources on a dead issue. Fire the prosecutors.