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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Correction: DA Morganelli Does Support ARD, in District Court, For Marijuana

As usual, I've screwed up. When I spoke to DA John Morganelli yesterday, he told me he supported keeping marijuana possession charges out of county court. He has just sent me this email:

"I would support giving the minor judiciary jurisdiction over these cases of Possession of small amt of marijuana and paraphernalia. I do not support routinely replacing the charge with DC bc that basically makes marijuana legal which it is not presently. We dispose almost ALL these cases via ARD. Our biggest problem is DUI offenses which makes up over 40% of our court list. We will be meeting with Judges Rosciola and Baratta soon to discuss this issue. JM"

I concluded that the reference to "DC" was a reference to District Court, and that John was telling me he supports ARD, a special program for first offenders, in county court. I was wrong. I've just received this correction from Morganelli:

"[Y]our blog is incorrect as to what I said. My reference to DC was to Disorderly Conduct. I do not support routinely replacing the small amt of marijuana charge with DISORDERLY CONDUCT. I DO support allowing Minor Judiciary to hear cases and allow it to be graded a Misdemeanor 3 and allow ARD there. JM"

So there you have it. I apologize for getting it wrong.

I probably should stop smoking weed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

bernie, i can finally give you credit. You did the right thing and admitted a mistake.This is what happens when you rush to judgement.I cant wait to hear the responses from those that choose to blast our President. Wait until all the info comes out about why our current recession almost led to the collapse of our financial system. Smaller gov sounds good but whose gonna control those that wanna make money with any scheme at any cost.Sorry to say its gonna be more than the free market system.Im a centrist who likes a balance between rep and dem solutions.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Yep, I screwed up and apologize. Did not really rush to judgment bc I have no strong feelings on ths issue.

Anonymous said...

Off Topic:

Can we say slimy? He didn't get his way, so now he is suing the estate. If his version of the Will was found to be legit, he would never file such a claim.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/all-news-angle-lawsuit-042710-cn,0,3973713.story

Bernie, if you find a way to spin this in Ron's favor it will do a transparent inability to see past your friendship. You can be friends, but Ron can also be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Smoke em if you got em...

Anonymous said...

It would be nice if DA's across the state petitioned the legislature to revisit the ridiculous laws instead of just coming up with ways around them.