看看这个加州教会要求信徒用大嘛毒品,教会头子终于被抓. NEWS

看看这个加州教会要求信徒用大嘛毒品,教会头子终于被抓. NEWS

Religion founder sentenced for possession of marijuana
By LILA FUJIMOTO, Staff Writer
WAILUKU – The founder of a religion that requires its members to use marijuana was ordered not to sell, use or possess illegal drugs, as he was placed on probation Tuesday for possessing more than 3 pounds of marijuana found at a Paia house last year.

James Kimmel, 72, of Kula, has maintained he was smoking the marijuana and providing it to others in conjunction with the Religion of Jesus Church, which he founded in 1969 in Sonoma, Calif.

“I’m not a criminal,” Kimmel said in court Tuesday. “I don’t consider what I’m doing to be wrong. I have no intent whatsoever of breaking the law, be it man’s or God’s.”

While Kimmel was spared a jail term Tuesday, 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza warned the defendant that he faced more serious consequences if he doesn’t follow the law.

“You need to understand you have some important choices to make,” Cardoza said. “If you don’t make the right ones, you’re going to go to prison.”

Kimmel was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine as part of his five years’ probation.

He was arrested Feb. 22, 2006, after police officers making undercover narcotics purchases in Paia were led to Kimmel’s Ulumalu Place residence as the source of the marijuana, Cardoza noted.

Kimmel was found with 3.37 pounds of marijuana, as well as $1,000 on him and another $5,000 in his room, said Deputy Prosecutor Timothy Tate.

Based on a police purchase of a quarter-ounce of marijuana for $120 earlier that day, Kimmel’s marijuana stash had an estimated street value of more than $20,000, Tate said.

“By his own admission, he’s selling on average $1,500 worth of marijuana a day,” Tate said. “It’s not just to people within his religion.

“When you look at the wide-scale enterprise he’s engaging in, it’s beyond his personal use. He’s benefiting from it, and he’s distributing it just like any other person selling drugs.”

Tate recommended a one-year jail term as part of probation for Kimmel.

But his attorney, Michael Glenn of Honolulu, argued that Kimmel shouldn’t be punished for exercising his religion and for providing marijuana to people allowed to use the drug for medical reasons.

Incarcerating Kimmel would have “zero legitimate purpose,” Glenn said.

“There’s no victim,” he said. “No one was harmed. There’s no one here to speak out against Reverend Kimmel today.”

While noting he wasn’t sentencing Kimmel for drug sales, Cardoza told Kimmel: “Your conduct reaches out into the community and does have an impact on the community.”

After unsuccessfully challenging the drug charges based on freedom of religion, Kimmel had pleaded no contest to second-degree commercial promotion of marijuana and possessing drug paraphernalia.

He has indicated that he will pursue an appeal of his case.

Cardoza ordered Kimmel not to sell, possess or use alcohol and illegal drugs as a requirement of his probation.

“You have indicated that that’s contrary to your personal views, but that’s the law,” the judge said.

When Glenn asked whether Kimmel could use marijuana for therapeutic reasons, Cardoza said: “If he’s authorized by law to use it as medical marijuana and follows all of those requirements, that would not violate the condition.”

James A. Greathouse, 56, and his wife, Liz O’Garvey, 52, who were arrested with Kimmel, last month paid fines of $1,000 each after pleading no contest to reduced charges of second-degree promotion of a detrimental drug.

The two originally were charged in connection with 137 marijuana plants found at the home.

Attorneys for Greathouse and O’Garvey said they weren’t members of Kimmel’s religion but were renting a room in the house in exchange for doing computer work. Both said they had medical marijuana licenses after suffering injuries in a car crash.


Lila Fujimoto can be reached at [e-mail]