Metropolis of Billings asks decide to toss civil rights claims in pot dispensary lawsuit | Nationwide Information

The City of Billings is calling on a federal court to dismiss claims violating the civil rights of a marijuana dispensary owner in its investigation into the business.

In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court this week, the city asked the court to drop the civil rights lawsuit against the city and the Billings Police Department Det. Steve Hallam.

Attorneys Harlan Krogh and Ben Alke said Montana Organic Medical Supply (MOMS) pharmacy failed to meet its legal burden.

They also reiterated what the state has alleged in its defense: The claims are precluded by the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

In April, MOMS owner Steve Palmer sued the state, the state health department, two state employees, the city of Billings and the detective Billings. Palmer challenged the measures that led to the closure of his store in 2018.

The pharmacy argued that the state and City of Billings ignored a lower court decision that favored the deal. With this decision, the state’s revocation of MOMS’s marijuana supplier license has been suspended. The state had expedited the process of revoking the license and violated the company’s procedural rights.

MOMS also said the city detective then went too far to request a search warrant to investigate the deal. After the state suspended its license and the court suspended that suspension, Hallam filed for a search warrant in which MOMS said it had misrepresented the previous court order by notifying the new judge that the license’s suspension was upheld when it was upheld was actually imposed. The company said its presentation of the facts was a “judicial deception”.

City attorneys and Hallam denied in their filing this week that the detective misrepresented any of the facts or committed any wrongdoing in his search warrant request.

But even if he had, it is said, the company would never have shouldered the legal burden of bringing civil rights claims against a community.

The city also focused on the discrepancy between federal law and Montana law, which now allows both medical marijuana and recreational marijuana – although the recreational market has not yet started operating.

“Federal law enforcement officers could shut down any licensed marijuana supplier in the state and prosecute them at any time,” the city wrote.

In addition to the civil rights violation lawsuit, MOMS is seeking punitive damages against the city and the detective, including against claims that have yet to be dealt with in the lawsuit.