NJ Weedman files ethics charge against judge
TRENTON » Famed cannabis connoisseur and marijuana legalization activist Edward “NJ Weedman” Forchion, also known as “Political Prisoner 420,” continues to rage against the judiciary.
He has accused a Mercer County judge of misconduct and promised he would ultimately come out victorious in a lawsuit after a federal judge recently dismissed one of his civil rights suits against Mercer County prosecutors and the county jail warden this month.
The judge ruled the “frivolous” litigation was without merit.
Already hit with drug charges following a raid on his downtown business, Forchion’s lawsuit complained he was illegally and unconstitutionally being detained at the Mercer County Correction Center on witness tampering charges.
In a phoned jailhouse interview with The Trentonian, Forchion laid out tactics for how he will avoid convictions that could send him to prison for a long time. He has filed an ethics complaint against Mercer County Judge Anthony Massi, who presided over his case.
The case will likely be reassigned to another judge to avoid an appearance of conflict while the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, which vets complaints in secret, said in a letter it will determine whether there’s an “indication of improper judicial conduct” on Massi’s part.
This is the latest drama in an unfolding soap opera starring New Jersey’s prickly pothead.
Forchion is also feuding with his former attorney, Edward Heyburn, since being jailed on alleged witness tampering charges. The two former compatriots have exchanged public barbs amid their nasty divorce.
“I wouldn’t have went down that rabbit hole had he not led me there,” Forchion said of his former attorney’s legal tactics. “On the other side was Ms. [Stephanie] Katz with a cage.”
Forchion lamented how his mounting legal problems forced him to shutter his once-popular business and destroyed his life. In addition to the criminal charge he faces, Forchion was hit with a defamation lawsuit from Heyburn.
Forchion said Heyburn asked to be let out of his case and then testified against him in a pretrial proceeding. Heyburn served Forchion with the defamation lawsuit at an August court appearance, the marijuana advocate said.
“He’s my lawyer from hell,” Forchion said. “He’s worst than a scorned girlfriend.”
Forchion also filed three ethics complaints against Heyburn. In response, the attorney released 1,700 pages of text messages, emails and documents the two exchanged, contending the correspondence clears him of any wrongdoing.
“I dumped him because he was idiot and didn’t listen to any of my advice,” Heyburn shot back. “He went on his own campaign to attack this informant against my advice.”
NJ Weedman has failed in his numerous attempts to get freed on the witness tampering charges, which revolve around his alleged online harassment of a police informant.
An appeals court recently struck down his latest challenge on a technical matter related to newly implemented bail reform, which is supposed to hold violent and dangerous defendants until trial.
He was also dealt another legal blow when U.S. District Court Judge Peter Sheridan issued an opinion earlier this month saying the marijuana advocate and bone cancer survivor’s lawsuit contending he has been “maliciously” denied medical care at the jail and victimized by malicious prosecution was legally deficient.
The judge ruled Forchion — who isn’t a lawyer despite numerous forays in the justice system, including winning a past drug case in Burlington County – didn’t raise any “policy claims” against Mercer County prosecutors and Trenton Police.
As it related to MCCC jail warden Charles Ellis, the judge said the famous blunt smoker didn’t explain how Ellis was connected to claims of malicious prosecution.
Forchion is allowed to refile the lawsuit as long as he does so in the next month. He contended police and prosecutors launched a “bogus criminal investigation” against him and employed “entrapment tactics” to get him on witness tampering.
Forchion has been his own worst enemy.
Prosecutors used an interview he gave The Trentonian last year in which he claimed he was OK if the informant, whom he disparagingly referred to as “the
rat,” got shot in the head if it meant he wouldn’t go to jail to indict him on witness tampering charges.
Forchion also posted images and information of the informant online he contends was done at the direction of his lawyer.
In being allowed to withdraw from Forchion’s case, Heyburn accused the marijuana advocate of lying and not following his legal advice.
He also claimed in the defamation lawsuit that Forchion fabricated emails that Forchion said showed his lawyer was complicit in a legal tactic to out the informant and moot prosecutor’s request for a protective order.
“I can’t believe this nightmare,” Forchion said. “He got a pass like Christie got a pass, that fat ass. There’s proof he knew.”
With Heyburn out of his criminal and civil cases, Forchion has retained another attorney, Mario Williams, a managing partner out of the Virginia-based firm Nexus Caridades.
He was put in touch with the attorney through reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter, who championed Forchion’s cause.
Williams is expected to represent him in both federal lawsuits, part of a bigger fightback campaign the marijuana activist has launched to exonerate himself in his upcoming trial and restore his name.