stillisstillmoving.com

www.enctoday.com
by Lindell Kay

District Attorney Dewey Hudson says he wants to make sure last week’s moonshine and marijuana bust of Willie Nelson’s band members was above board.

Longtime Nelson bass player Dan Edward “Bee” Spears, 60, of Franklin, Tenn., and five other members of the band were cited with possession of non-tax-paid alcohol. Two of them were also cited with marijuana possession.

The citations came just minutes before the band was set to take the stage Jan. 28 at the Duplin County Events Center on Fairgrounds Drive in Kenansville. The performance was subsequently canceled.

Hudson said he is investigating whether N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents applied selective prosecution in the situation.

“Selective prosecution is best described like this: Law enforcement can’t set up a road block and let their friends through without checking them and then stop someone they don’t know,” Hudson said. He has been looking over reports from the ALE agents present during the incident and will more than likely interview the agent in charge.

The D.A.’s office has fielded several calls from Duplin County residents and from people all over southeastern North Carolina wanting to know why ALE agents charged Nelson’s band members in Kenansville when similar actions go unnoticed at other larger venues across the state.

Grammy award-winning Nelson was not present in Kenansville when his band members were cited. The 76-year-old strummer had yet to arrive at the sold-out show.

Many in attendance that night said they felt the concert was canceled because of the band members’ bust. Hudson, who was at the events center to see the show, said he understood everyone’s frustration.

ALE agents allegedly smelled marijuana smoke coming from the band’s van in the parking lot of the event center and wrote citations to, but did not take into custody, the band members, who were also not prevented from performing, said Ted Carlton, special agent in charge of ALE District III.

ALE is ready to cooperate with Hudson’s investigation, he said.

Shortly after the concert was canceled, a notice on Nelson’s Web site said Nelson’s left hand was in pain and he could not play. Nelson did play the next night, Jan. 29, in Rome, Ga., but canceled a Jan. 30 show scheduled in Asheville. His Web site offered two reasons: first saying his hand was in pain again and later saying the show was canceled because of forecasted inclement weather.

Nelson’s publicist, Elaine Schock, said Nelson’s shows were canceled because his left hand hurt. The right-handed guitar-picker had carpal tunnel surgery on his left hand in 2004.

Schock would not discuss any other possible reason the two North Carolina shows were canceled, despite Nelson playing his guitar “Trigger” for a crowd of 3,000 in Georgia in between the canceled shows in Kenansville and Asheville.

In addition to Spears, ALE agent Kenny Simma also cited Robert Allen Lemons, 59, of Spicewood, Texas; Aaron William Foye, 32, of San Marcos, Texas; and Thomas Ray Hawkins, 54, of Atlantic City, N.J. for moonshine possession.

Kenneth Koepke, 52, of Burnet, Texas, and Dudley Bishop Prewitt, 59, of Spicewood, Texas, were cited for moonshine and marijuana possession.

The events center general manager, John Duane Vogt, 58, and his assistant, Donald Farrior, 50, both of Kenansville, were cited by ALE agents for trying to interfere with their investigation.

Vogt told The Daily News on Friday that he did not get in the way.

“In no way, shape or form did I interfere,” he said.

Vogt said the ALE’s actions have severely damaged Kenansville’s businesses, which have been struggling to get visitors to come to the rural town.

“I understand law enforcement was doing their job,” he said. “I just hope we can work out something where we can have a show without them arresting 70-year-old men for drinking beer in the grass and busting performers who don’t even have enough marijuana to get arrested.”

Hudson said Nelson’s Nashville attorney, John Brown, has hired Sampson County lawyer Doug Parsons to represent the band members in court. Parsons has filed for discovery in the case, and the D.A.’s office has already turned over some records to the defense, Hudson said.

The next scheduled court date in the case is March 10.

http://www.enctoday.com/news/nelson-72483-jdn-hudson-attorney.html

www.newsobserver.com
by Anne Blythe

Willie Nelson Family Bust in North Carolina

It hit the AP yesterday, so you may have already heard: a handful of members from The Willie Nelson Family were cited before a concert in North Carolina.  The charges were for misdemeanor possession of moonshine and marijuana.  They were charged and released, but the concert was canceled due to pain in Willie Nelson’s hand from carpal tunnel syndrome. 

Now, before you go thinking the reason for cancellation was merely an excuse, let me tell you a few things I  personally know about CTS.  Stress can cause intense flare-ups: for me it tightens the shoulders and neck.  And of course it’s all connected.  In fact, in severe CTS your shoulders and neck will sometimes hurt. 

Willie did have surgery on his hand a few years back.  However, from my own research I have learned that carpal tunnel surgery can be successful only at first. In some cases the symptoms do come back.  Additionally, studies have shown marijuana use has benefits for those with neuropathic pain, like carpal tunnel syndrome….and medicinal marijuana is legal in the state of Hawaii, where Nelson has a home.

To the fans in North Carolina and the surrounding states, I want to express my sympathy.  Some of you missed an evening of music with an American musical con, along with his closest family and friends.  But all North Carolinians have had their tax dollars spent rather irresponsibly by law enforcement officials who were picking on an easy target.  Even though he’s a decade younger, Willie is about as dangerous as my dear old grandma. 

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time The Willie Nelson Family has been the target of overzealous law enforcement.  The Honeysuckle Rose IV was stopped and searched in Louisiana in 2006.  At that time Willie, his sister Bobbie Nelson, and three of the crew were issued citations.  Just last month near El Paso, they were stopped by Border Patrol.  The bus was emptied and its inhabitants waited in the cold for hours while it was searched.  In this writer’s opinion, that was a waste of the tax money of all Americans. 

If nothing else, I hope publicity from these run-ins will garner attention for marijuana decriminalization. Prohibition didn’t work in the last century for alcohol and it doesn’t work now for cannabis.  Not only is it futile, but enforcing laws against marijuana is extremely costly.  Local and federal governments are spending money when they could instead be making more for our
currently flailing economy through cannabis decriminalization combined with
taxation. 

The road is Willie’s true home and continued harassment will not force him to retire.  I think if it came right down to it, he would simply choose to tour those 14 states where medicinal marijuana use is allowed.  That might mobilize his fans in the other 36 states to do something.  If Willie didn’t feel safe in my home state due to its marijuana laws, I would be inspired to do whatever it took to promote change in those laws.  And I would also travel to see him in nearby states where he could safely perform, supporting their local economy rather than my own. We should all take the initiative now and start doing what is within our power to put an end to archaic laws that are doing more harm than good.

I haven’t yet addressed the moonshine.  Personal possession of homemade lcohol  is nt illegal in all states, and where laws do exist it is mainly because it is “non-tax paid,” as has been the reported issue in this particular case.  My theory is that the orth Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) officers seized the moonshine ecause they were grasping at straws when their hopes of a bigger bust were hwarted.  But they probably didn’t realize that Willie is a longtime advocate of reen fuels. Did the ALE confiscate a quart jar of hooch that was really intended as ethanol biofuel for the van? (My tongue is firmly in cheek.  Laugh if you can, or just ignore the attempt at a joke and keep reading).

God Bless Willie.  I’m a young ‘un compared to him and can’t imagine being on the road, jamming nearly every night.  It would wear me out fast, and I can’t image what picking a guitar would do to the CTS in my arms.  I hope Willie Nelson and Family find time to relax and recuperate on their first 2010 road break, which starts today.  And if marijuana helps cure their stress and pain, then far be it from me or anyone else to criticize their use of it.

For more information on marijuana law reform, and to contact the lawmakers in your state, please visit
http://www.facebook.com/l/dc968;norml.org 

Crystal, in Missouri

There are some disappointed fans in Kenansville, North Carolina tonight.  Willie Nelson and Family were not able to perform, owing to the fact that the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement stormed the the bus of Willie Nelson’s crew before the show tonight, and cited everyone present  for possession of moonshine or a misdemeanor amount of marijuana.   (Oh, but what would Poodie think about his moonshine being confiscated?)

I talked to a fan who was  in the audience, who said they started to wonder what was going on when someone started taking Lukas’ Nelson’s drum set apart, and then Billy English’s chime and other percussion instruments were removed from the stage.  Then, someone from the venue came and announced that the show was being cancelled, because Willie Nelson was ill or suffering from carpal tunnel sydrome, and told people how to ask for refunds. 

Willie and his bus were not at the venue yet and he was not ticketed.  The band is scheduled to perform in Rome, Georgia tomorrow night as scheduled, according to Willie’s website, www.WillieNelson.com.   The band is scheduled for another North Carolina show on Saturday, but I don’t think North Carolina deserves another visit.  But I guess it would be the fans who suffer if he doesn’t go.