Luke Scarmazzo 63131-097

United States Penitentiary

3901 Klein Blvd.

Lompoc, Ca 93436

FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS,

THIS IS DEVINA  KRAZ'S (LUKE'S)  WIFE, TODAY WAS HIS SENTENCING DAY ALONG WITH RICARDO,   MY HUSBAND WAS SENTENCED TO 21 1/2 YEARS IN PRISON AND RICARDO 20!! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN THAT?? IT IS MIND BOGGELING TO ME THAT THEY RECEIVED THAT MUCH TIME. THE ONLY VICTIMS HERE ARE  LUKE, RICARDO,  OUR FAMILIES AND THE PATIENTS WHO NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO THEIR MEDICINE. MY MIND IS SO CONFLICTED, MY HEART IS TORN.  EMOTIONALLY WE ARE ALL SPENT. THIS HAS BEEN A LONG RIDE, BUT IT IS NOT OVER!!! WE WILL APPEAL THIS AND WE WILL FIGHT, I WILL FIGHT FOR MY HUSBAND AND RICARDO UNTIL THEY ARE HOME WITH US WERE THEY BELONG.

THE CONTINUED SUPPORT OF ALL OF YOU HAS BEEN SO APPRECIATED. I KNOW IN THE LONG RUN THEY WILL BE HOME. AND I HAVE PROMISED MY HUSBAND THAT I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO MAKE SURE OF THAT. OUR DAUGHTER ALONG WITH RICARDO'S CHILDREN DESERVE TO HAVE THEIR FATHERS IN THEIR LIVES, AND I AM NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL WE ARE HEARD, AND THEY ARE HOME.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR LUKE AND RICARDO AND OUR FAMILIES.

SINCERELY,
DEVINA J. SCARMAZZO

FAMILY, FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS,

THIS IS DEVINA SCARMAZZO, LUKE'S WIFE AND FOR THE LAST  COUPLE OF MONTHS I HAVE BEEN CORRESPONDING WITH SOME OF THE OFFICALS FROM PLAYBOY, AND AFTER QUITE A FEW WEEKS OF UNRELENTLESS EMAILS, I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO GET SOME PUBLICITY ABOUT OUR CASE AND THE INJUSTICE OF IT ALL!     

SO THAT'S WHAT WE GOT!!! LUKE AND RICARDO AND THE CASE ARE FEATURED IN THE DECEMBER ISSUE OF PLAYBOY ON PAGE 55!!! THIS IS GREAT! AND THE PUBLICITY IS NEEDED.  HOPEFULLY IT WILL ATTRACT MAJOR ATTENTION FROM OUR COUNTRY AND HIGHER OFFICALS IN OUR CONGRESS, AND IN OUR GOVERNMENT

SOME ASK WHY PLAYBOY?

MR. HUGH HEFNER AND THE PLAYBOY NAME ITSELF ARE VERY BIG SUPPORTERS OF THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA MOVEMENT.  THEY THOUGHT THE OUTCOME AND THE CASE ITSELF WAS INJUST AND NEEDED TO BE HEARD!!!

STOP AND GET THE ISSUE!!!!! 

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO GAVE ME THAT HOPE AND THE WORDS TO NOT GIVE UP. IT HAS BEEN SUCH A DIFFICULT TIME AND ALL THE NEGITIVE RESPONSES, AND THE NO'S, STILL HASN'T BROUGHT US DOWN, IT ONLY MAKES US STRONGER! 

DEVINA SCARMAZZO!!

June 2, 2008.

I had been in Fresno County Jail for a little over two weeks.  It takes time adjusting to incarceration regardless of the person or enviroment.  My prior case I spent 18 months in  whats called the "hole" or "shu".  Shu stands for secure housing unit.  This perticular shu was two man cells with a sink, toilet, and a desk inside of each dell with a steel door.  We got 3 hours a week for our showers and the remainder of the time on a concrete yard.  3 hours a week is not much and the rest of  the time we remained in our cell.  Believe it or not you actucally get used to it, the human-being is a very adaptable species.  Here in Fresno its "pod" or "dorm" living.  It consists of 72 bunks, 3 beds high all within a few feet of each other.  There is whats called a day room with octagon shaped tables scattered throughout.  Nothing seperates the day room from our sleeping  area.  There is an upstairs and downstairs that have basically an identical floorplan, except the upstairs has the "pod bathroom."  This is two urinals, four toilets, three shower stalls, and five sinks.  The bathroom is also for the most part out in the open.  There is a lack of privacy in this type of "housing" in contrast to cell living as well as a highten tension because of the close quarters and so many people joined into such a small area.  However both have their pros and cons.  There is more freedom to move around and more social interaction, but in lock up a pro can quickly turn into a con.  This day we were scheduled to return to  court to see if the U.S. Attorney is going to retry us on the Conspiracy to distribute marijuana charge that the jury dead locked on.  Despite the U.S. Attorney convicting us on the 20 to life charge of a CCE, I still had a feeling she was going to retry us on this count as well.  Here is my theory on why, and its not just her lack of conscience or benevolence, she had a bit of a strategy.  If she decided to retry us on on that one count, and even is she gained a conviction it would not affect our sentence because the penalty for this offense is 10 years and we already had 20 which the judge would run concurrent   together.  So it would make no difference to us, sentence wise if we were retried and convicted.  However here is where her strategy comes into play.  If we were to get our conviction overutrned on appeal on the 20 year charge of CCE without her retrying us on the conspiracy, we would only do a couple of years, but if she retryed and convicted us on the conspiracy count and we got the CCE charge reversed we would still have to do 10 years, so its was almost like a safety net for her to make sure we did atleast a decade in prison.  A bit confusing I know.  But lastly I thought with the lack of money and the overcrowding of the court system she may not choose to retry us, because she already won a 20 year conviction,  which is way excessive for our alleged "crime," and we would have nothing to lose.   It would be a complete waste of resources on the governments behalf for no gain, other than the fact I stated above.  So I remained hopeful it would be dismissed but knowing the vindictivness of the U.S. Attorney she may want to overkill us, waste money, and continue to pound in another conviction on the horriable "medical cannabis criminals."  Of course to protect society from medicated cancer patients and their providers.  I am sure the world is a safer place with Ricardo and I behind bars for decades, not to mention the smart use of our limited resources.  This was also the day where we were going to have a forfeiture hearing to see what else the government was going to take beside our freedom.  I was awakend at 5:30 am and taken to a hloding cell at 6:30 am.  This was my first time seeing Ricardo since our verdict.  He was sitting down in the crowded holding cell and smiled when he saw me.  It was good to see him, he's the only familiar face I had seen in weeks.  The U.S. marshalls shortly arrived to transport us over to the federal courthouse.  They were in a rush despit our court hearing not being shceduled until 3:30pm. In the limited  time I have had dealing with the feds and marshalls I have noticed there is a lot of "hurry up and wait." We were being rushed to the federal courthouse to sit in a stainless steal cage for a court hearing that was over 8 hours away but I have learned quickly that when dealing with this system you dismiss all logic and reason. 3 O'clock finally rolled around and we were led in hand and feet shakles that we had now been on for 10 hours,  into the courtroom.  It was extremely bright compared to the dark dungon we had just spent hald the day in.  As  I walked in the courtoom (I had not been there since our devestating"guilty" verdict,)  feelings and thoughts overwhelmed me.  I felt as though I was revisiting a crime scene, there was a depressing, sad, unescapable presence in the atmosphere, like I was in a horriable dream, that I knew the outcome of, but couldn't wake up.  I looked at the audience and saw our family members and reporters.  They made no noise, but I could almost hear an undiscriable slience of pain.  I smiled and faced the judge, trying not to let the U.S.  attorney take pleasure in our tragedy, masking any indication of the destruction they had caused us and our families.  My lawyer walked over to my chair before the hearing started and said " she is going to retry you on the conspiracy" before I could respond the judge brought court into session.  They started with forfeiture part they went through a list of cash seizures that included our bank accounts, safety deposit boxes,  ect..ect..to make a long story short they took it all dispite our protests, stating that it was all from illegal drug procedures.  Then they said they added up our gross reciepts and they totaled 9.2 million dollars, and stated that federal law says that we are liable for this entire amount minus the money they siezed.  Regardless of the fact these were gross reciepts meaning before we paid salary, business expenses, taxes (state and federal), and all other operatin costs.  I objected to this and called my lawyer over to me. I said we paid around 2 million in taxes, how are we liable to pay this if the same government that we gave  these proceeds to is now saying we owe them the entire gross amount, this didn't seem right to me.  My lawyer tried to make this argument and the judge and U.S. Attorney conceded that there was never a case like this before, where a supposed "drug kingpin" paid taxes, but in all other "kingpin" cases the individual or enterprise was liable for their entire goss receipts and could not subrtact operation expenses.  This made no sense, but thats only if you apply reason and logic, which does not exist in the federal law system as I said before.  So they concluded the forfieture part of the proceedings, by saying Ricardo and I owe the federal government both together and seperatly 8,911,574.22 dollars.  It almost seemed like a sick joke except nobody was laughing.  First they charged us as organized crime drug kingpins when they knew we were a state approved medical cannabis dispensary, then they give us 20 years on our first ever drug offense for following California Law,  and now they say in addition to these penalties you owe us just under  9 million dollars!! I thought to myself am I the only one who sees the absurdity in all of this? Am I stil in America? Apparently so.

            The next part of the hearing was on whether or not the U.S. Attorney was going to retry us on the conspiracy.  The judge asked the US Attorney " what is the governments position on this" She replied "your honor since the defendants are filing a motion for a new trail,"  which we hadn't yet, but we were in the process of  " the government seeks to retry the defendants on count two conspiracy to distribute."  It didn't surprise me much.  Throught out this whole ordeal, the us attorney has had a repungnant self-rightousness about her.  She has treated us as some of the most dangerous threats to society and the most heinous criminals she has had  the pleasure of opposing.   Extremely relentless in her prosecution of Ricardo and I.  I guess she had probably told her self  this lie over and over until she believed it to be true.  In any aspect she was a very worthy advisary.  The judge then asked our attorney what day they would like to set this matter for a status hearing, to see where we would be at.  My attorney wanted to set it for three months form then.  The US attorney agreed and it was seconds from being over when I stood up and called my attorney to me.  The US Marshalls told me to sit down. I wanted to tell him this is my life and my court hearing I can voice my opinion on anything I want, but I held my tongue.  My attorney asked the judge to give him a monment to confer with his client and came over and asked me whats up.  I thought to myself I am not going to sit here another year or so and await this insignificant trial.  So if she wants to retry us and waste all these resources and time I am going to call her bluff and force her to do it within 45 days by envoking my right to a speedy trial.  After all when pressed for time and just coming off of our  week trial, they wouldn't have prepared for us to counter attack in this way.  I voiced this to my lawyer, and he said to the judge " your honor my client would like to envoke his right to a speedy trial."  The US attorney replied " that since they are filing a new trial motion that automatically forced them to waive time!"  The judge stated that he did not think she was correct on this and if she thought otherwise she would need case law to support her position and gave her until june 16th to show this and said we would all return on this date to find out, but said in closing that if she failed to show this case law we would be in trial within 45 days.  The proceedings concluded and the marshalls retrieved us and led us out of the courtroom.  I thought to myself, I know she won't have the case law and with such a short time to prepare for another long trial she would dismiss the charge, but we would have to wait unti the 16th to find our for sure.

June 16th, 2008

The same routine commenced on this day as did on the second of june.  Incarceration is a very routined existance.  Inmates tend to become locked into a repetitive order that brings a sense of security to their lives, granted it is a very false sense.  No matter how much the administration and bureaucrats try or state to the contrary, lock up is never comfortable or secure.  An interuption to these emotional states can come from many different forms.  The break in my routine on this day came in the form of a court call. This can be prepared  and anticipated, unfortunatley many of the others cannot.  Again I was woken up at 5:30am and pulled out at 6:30 am, searched for weapons, which is just a pat down by the correctional officers here in the county jail, and led to an elevator that takes me to the basement.  I exited the elevators to a "guard station" that scans my wrist band and I am double checked on a list to make sure I was an "G.P." or general population.  As a G.P. inmate we're allowed to enter all of the general areas of the jail, and court without major concern for our  safety.   They can interact with the entire jail population.  The other calssification of an inmate is "P.C." or protective custody.  These individuals have to be kept away from the general population for a variety of reasons. Among them are child molesters, rapist, other committed other sex crimes,  they have testified or are going to testify against another person, members of a group whos safety is in jeopardy in a particular institution, are mentally unfit, or on rare circumstances are extreme threats to the safety of a  anyone they come in contact with.  There are also gray areas between the two classifications that are unique to an inmate and the individual circumstances surrounding him or her.  The people who dedide the proper "label" for the inmate are called classification officers.  After confirming my G.P. status he directed me to walk down a long concrete hallway to the holding cells.  When I got there I saw Ricardo once again, gave him a brotherly greeting, sat down next to him and discussed what had occured in our regions of the jail and with our families within the past couple of weeks.  Ricardo seemed to be holding up pretty well for this being his first protracted jail stay and the totality of our case and sentence.  He is a strong minded man, which I had known for a long time now, for what we had been through together.  This was the thirteenth year  I have known Ricardo and I consider him family.  The U.S. marshalls arrived like clock work and pulled each of us out of the cell one by one.  They stood us up facing a wall instructing us to put our hands on the wall and spread our feet.  They patted us down again, this was my second one in the course of 20 minutes.  They hand cuffed our hands and wraped a chain around our waist connecting it to our hand cuffs with a pad lock.  Then they cuffed our ankels together with a 12 inch chain that makes it extremely hard to walk.  One has to take baby steps as the cuffs dig into the skin on your ankels leaving welts and cuts by the end of the day.  After they completed this task, a dozen or so people are then take  to the federal court house.  We boarded a dark blue van.  Upon arrival we filed out of the van and are taken to the stainless steel holding cage to wait for our hearing that was 7 hours away.  A diverse group of people can be found in these holding cells.  Some are here for the first time, others whom have done many years in the federal system, and in many different institutions, a large group of mexican nationals or "pisas" are here for illegal entery to the US and many drug cases as well.  The one thing all of us have in common is we are al fighting or have been found guilty of a fereral charge.  I like to speak to the other individuals that have been to other federal prisons to see what knowledge or wisdon I can gain about the particular places they have done time in.  Being that it is highly likely that I will end up in the federal prison system for a number of years, I like to find our what prisons have "cool" programs, good food, favorable visiting conditions (considering I have a wife and child), and other things that may influence a request for a particular prison destination.  One thing I want to make clear, from my conversations I have gained information that you may request a certain prison, but it is up to the Board of Prisons (B.O.P.) where you end up.  After you have been at an institution for 18 months with no rule violations you can request a transfer to a prison you desire.  However, you must be very careful, I have heard a request to Miami can end up landing you in Texas, its all up to the BOP. 

            After many hours of waiting we were finally called out of the holding cell to our hearing.  As I walked into the brightly lite up courtroom I saw many familiar faces, some pleasant some I could have done without seeing. Many of our Families, friends and supporters have been at every court date.  I do appreciate the support and I would like to personally thank all of them for being there through these trying times, My wife DeVina, daughter Jasmine, my mother, father close friends and family, and others who I would like to name but it woud be like writing a phone book not a journal entry or blog.  Ther are also many that "should have" been there but were not, I will leave that issue alone for now though.  After my eyes adjusted to the lights I noticed the depressing feelings I was feeling at my prior court date weren't as strong.  I didn't know if I was getting used to these tramatic events like a E.R. docto, becoming immune to the sight of blood, or if i was just becoming numb to some human emotions all together.  A defense mechanism of being incarcerated is to block our certain natural emotions that will make your time eaiser to pass.  I won't go into detail on this but it happens whether you like it or not, it is just human nature.  As I was pondering this,  the judge abruptly brought the hearing to order.  He said the reason for this hearing was to see if the U.S. Attorney found case law to support her position, that we had to waive time on our speedy trial, because we had a new trial motion being filed.  He said " I have not recieved anything from the government." the US attorney responded that she could not find the case law and we had a right to a speedy trial with no waiver of time.    The judge then asked my lawyer when he would like to schedule the trial. " when does the time expire"  my lawyer relpied .  and the judge told him a date in mid-july.  My lawyer said that date would be find and then the judge asked the US attorney if that date was suitable for her as well.  She responded with the government does not see a reson to retry the defendants with a new trial motion still pending so in the interest of justice she would like to dismiss count two of the indictment conspiracy to distribute amarijuana.  I said " yesss!!"  in my head.  Our strategy worked and she was forced to dismiss with our speedy trial rights being envoked.  Granted it was a very small victory, but it came after tremendous defeat so any battle that ended in our favor was warmly welcomed.  I then asked my lawyer to address two more issues.  The first was I had been trying to get to the law library for several weeks now and was being denied  access by the jail.  They stated a jail policy saying you had to  "pro per".  ( which is a latin term meaning you have to be representing yourself.) I know as a federal inmate I had a federal right to the law library regardless of any local jail policy.  If federal law can trump the state law, that  I was following and landed me in prison for 20 or so years, it  most certainly it should be able to override some local jail policy.  My lawyer told the judge about my access being blocked and the judge said he would send a letter requesting my acess be granted.  The second issue was my blood pressure medication.  I had put in many medical forms for my perscried blood pressure medication but got no response.  My lawyer expressed this to the judge and he said to give him the name of my medication and he would perosnally contact the jail doctor who was on staff on behalf of the federal inmates.  Healthcare is one of the top complaints in our nations penal system and Fresno county jail is no exception.  The default treatment for any illment is 2 ibprofin and being sent back to you cell.  THe doctors and the medical assistants you deal with are very uncompassionate and cold.  Dental work is virtually non-existant, and the only procedure performed is a tooth extraction no matter what is wrong or needed.  In their defense the small staff is overburdend, undertrained, and underpaid.  Staph infection and other superbugs are rampant in this facility.  Leaving the courtroom I felt like some good progress had been made.  Our next cout date is August 11th, where the judge will rule on our new trial motion and if it is granted, a new trial date will be set,  if it is denied we will be sentenced right then and there to whatever our prison term will be.  I can only pray our motion is granted and we have our day in court again.

STRENGTH AND HONOR

LUKE AKA KRAZ

Tomorrow is the finale of the trial closing arguments and then the jury will deliberate. I remain confident; however the reality is that it can go either way. My fate is in the hands of 5 women and 7 men. The gravity of the situation is beginning to be felt. If convicted I will be sentenced to a minimum of 30 to 40 years in a federal prison with my enhancements and prior. I am 27 years old, I am a father and I am human. I would be between 60 and 70 years old by the time I was released from prison. I am standing up for what I think is right in the face of certain doom. I will not compromise myself, my beliefs or my morals no matter what the consequences. This could be my last writing as a free man and I have some words that need to be said.

To my daughter Jasmine you are my heart. Nothing in this world is more important or more sacred to me than you. I want you to be the best you can in whatever you choose. You are smarter than I ever was. My choices in life were always for you and with you in mind. I wanted you to never want for anything. I think my ambition far exceeded my reason. You are the only reason my potential consequence is dreaded so much. My loss of liberty could never compare to you loss of a stable loving father. It is you my love that has to pay the ultimate price in this tragic circus. For that I am truely sorry.

Continued this evening……