Doctor wins back pay from marijuana promoter
A revealing look at medical marijuana industry
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A Whitefish doctor recently won a default judgment against a major player in Montana’s medical marijuana industry after she sued for back pay. Court documents for the case provide an interesting look into the once-burgeoning medical marijuana industry in Montana.
Patricia Cole worked at 17 of Jason Christ’s traveling medical screening clinics from July through November 2009. Christ, who once claimed credit for increasing the number of Montana medical marijuana card holders 10 times in a 15-month period, charged customers $150 apiece to visit with a doctor in order to obtain a card.
According to court documents, Christ agreed to pay Cole 50 percent of the screening fee. In a breach of contract lawsuit filed in October 2010, Cole claimed Christ owed her $38,000 for seven unpaid days of work in October and November 2009.
In an affidavit, Cole claimed an investigation of her work with the traveling clinics by the Montana Board of Medical Examiners and her “willingness to cooperate” led to Christ’s refusal to pay her.
“I believe his actions were intended to bring harm to me for my participation,” Cole said.
The Board of Medical Examiners issued an order in May 2010 based on their investigation. Noting that Cole saw 151 patients over a 14 1/2 hour period during a medical marijuana conference in Great Falls, the board said her work “amounts to unprofessional conduct” and fined Cole $4,000, with half of the fine stayed for 12 months if she committed no more violations.
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A new industry
When Christ, who defended himself pro se, failed to respond in time to Cole’s complaint, Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler granted default judgment in November 2010.
Christ replied to the judgment several weeks later, claiming that anything he owed Cole had been seized by the Missoula police “in an investigation of the defendant instigated by plaintiff’s attorney in another lawsuit where he represents parties against Mr. Christ.”
Noting that he was a registered lobbyist, a caregiver, a consultant to caregivers and a “public figure,” Christ suggested a conflict of interest with Cole’s attorney, Chris Lindsey. Christ said Lindsey “worked for defendant in 2009 providing him legal advice on creating paper trails and agreements that would yield in the legitimization of the emerging businesses in Montana’s new medical marijuana industry.”
Christ claimed that Lindsey “knows private information,” was a competitor as a part-owner in “one of the largest grow operations in the state,” and used his position as chairman of the Montana Medical Growers Association “in an attempt to exclude Christ and create an unfair advantage for himself.”
Christ also claimed he paid Cole’s $2,000 fine and assisted with her attorney fees following the Board of Medical Examiners order. He also claimed Cole directed medical marijuana patients to her Whitefish office. Christ said he “essentially handed her a large built-in base of patients.”
On Dec. 15, 2010, Stadler agreed to set aside the default judgment. Christ responded by filing more than a dozen lengthy pleadings over the next 12 months
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Marijuana busts
Some of Christ’s allegations were true. Lindsey, a Helena attorney, had joined three men to create Montana Cannabis in 2009 — Thomas Daubert, a lobbyist who helped pass the 2004 medical marijuana initiative in Montana; Chris Williams, who had experience growing marijuana; and Richard Flor, whose Miles City family was growing marijuana.
Montana Cannabis’ goal was to set the standard for the new medical marijuana industry by hiring workers, paying taxes and operating in strict compliance with the Montana Medical Marijuana Act. The company had about 300 registered customers at its peak.
Lindsey’s initial task was to write up a partnership agreement, but he later took turns with Williams guarding the company’s large grow operation in Helena — hundreds of plants in a former state nursery building visible from Highway 12. Lindsey and Daubert later testified in Williams’ federal drug trafficking and firearms trial that Lindsey and Williams wore pistols on their hips and kept a shotgun or two in the office.
Lindsey left Montana Cannabis in 2010 following a dispute with the other owners. In March 2011, federal agents and local law enforcement raided 26 homes, offices and warehouses across Montana. About 950 marijuana plants were found in the Montana Cannabis warehouse Helena.
Lindsey became the public face of the Montana Cannabis Industry Association in 2011 after the Montana Legislature passed a restrictive medical marijuana reform law. His group filed a lawsuit and promoted a ballot measure to overturn the bill.
But Lindsey was eventually ensnared along with his former partners following the March 2011 drug raids. Facing federal drug charges, Lindsey struck a deal with prosecutors in August 2012. By pleading guilty to conspiracy to maintain drug-involved premises, several other charges were dropped.
In December 2012, federal prosecutors proposed that Lindsey, 45 years old and suffering from Crohn’s disease, with a sick wife and an eight-year-old boy, be sentenced to five years of probation with six months of house arrest.
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Pro se arguments
Christ also suffered from health problems, which Lindsey referred to in an August 2012 filing. By that time, Christ had reportedly filed more than 1,300 pleadings in 25 civil cases and one criminal case — a felony intimidation case filed after he allegedly threatened to bomb a Verizon store in Missoula. Addressing Christ’s refusal to use a public defender and his insistence on acting pro se, Lindsey noted that Christ claimed he was afraid of going to jail and dying of an “unspecified disease.”
Christ was advised to get an attorney by Missoula County District Court Judge Karen Townsend as the bomb threat case went to court in October 2011. Prosecutor Andrew Paul requested a hearing to determine whether Christ was capable of defending himself and suggested a psychological examination.
Nine months later, Christ filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Missoula Police Department, the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, the Missoula County 911 and other parties claiming “willful and malicious actions” that caused him “emotional distress.” He sought $1.5 million in lost business, $26,850 as payment for defending himself and $50 million in punitive damages.
Christ’s troubles in Missoula found their way to the Flathead in Cole’s back pay lawsuit. After being banned from the University of Montana campus because of a stalking charge and later for smoking marijuana in the law school and cursing at staff, Christ filed an emergency motion for a stay of proceedings, claiming he had no access to a law library. He appealed for help from the Montana Supreme Court in December 2011.
Stadler rejected Christ’s emergency motion as well as his request for a change of venue on Jan. 26, 2012, and Lindsey continued to press for discovery documents. Christ filed a notice of appeal with the Montana Supreme Court on Feb. 22, but it was rejected for tardiness. Stadler set a Sept. 14 deadline for producing discovery documents, which Christ failed to meet. On Nov. 27, 2012, Stadler granted Cole default judgment for her $38,000 claim and reasonable attorney fees.
Christ managed one victory — he convinced at least one juror in his bomb threat trial that he never really meant to blow up the Verizon store. Unable to reach a verdict, Townsend declared a mistrial in October 2012.