[420 Girl]

BAD AXE — After months spent awaiting results from search warrants related to the indoor growing operation busted by police Sept. 25, the Bad Axe police have moved forward seeking criminal charges against the three people they claim violated the law.

Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski said his office received the warrant requests from Bad Axe police on Monday.

“We have the information, which is very detailed,” said Rutkowski, who added the related paperwork from the investigation measures about a foot tall. “We’ve started working on it.”

Bad Axe police are seeking charges against three men, two from the Livonia-area and one from Whitmore Lake, on charges of possession with intent to deliver marijuana and possession of marijuana. The charges stem from the 34 marijuana plants found at an elaborate indoor growing operation uncovered by police at a W. Huron Ave. rental home.

Bad Axe Police Chief Michael H. Anderson said it’s taken months to get search warrant results back from the utility company.

“There were people on vacation and holidays that slowed things up,” said Anderson about the search warrant results. “We believe the house was just a front—they only used the place to grow the marijuana. For now, we’re seeking charges against three people.”

The report Anderson sent to the prosecutor’s office is about 500 pages long and includes the criminal history of all three suspects, along with photographs take at the scene on Sept. 25, Anderson said.

In a previous interview with the Huron Daily Tribune, one of the men admitted his involvement in the growing operation. Jeffrey David Ellis, of Livonia, has defended his right to grow the marijuana, stating the W. Huron Avenue home was the site of a legitimate medical marijuana growing operation — not an illegal drug house. Ellis said the operation was fully within the scope of Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act, and that he did nothing wrong.

Anderson disagrees.

“We believe there are clear violations of the law here,” Anderson said in an earlier interview with the Tribune. “Violations of even the medical marijuana law. If the operation was a legitimate medical marijuana operation, these violations (found at the home during the raid) would make (the growers’) claim null and void.”

As the case makes its way to court, it may lead to a better definition in what has been described as hazy-areas of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

Look to the Tribune for a follow up to this story as information becomes available.

Ellis could not be reached for comment.

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