Sentencing of Christies Delayed Again, Now Set for April 28

Roger Christie will have to wait at least another six weeks before learning his fate.

Sentencing for the Big Island cannabis minister and his wife, Sherryanne “Share” Christie, has been rescheduled for the fourth time, and is now set for April 28.

Both pleaded guilty in September to federal drug charges. Roger Christie also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to file federal income tax returns.

At the time, Roger Christie’s lawyer, Thomas Otake, said he believed that because of time already served, when his client was sentenced in late January he would be facing no more than an additional six months in prison.

Christie has been in federal custody since July 2010. His wife is free on a bond.

But the sentencing was delayed until Feb. 10 and then Feb. 12 after Otake filed objections on Christie’s behalf to items in his pre-sentencing report.

In late January, the sentencing date was pushed back again to April 14, and then to the current date.  

The reasons for the delays were not stated in court records. Neither Otake nor Lynn Panagakos, attorney for Share Christie, could be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, legal proceedings for the Christies’ 12 co-defendants have been wending their way through US District Court in Honolulu.

Nearly all have entered into plea agreements with prosecutors involving guilty pleas to at least one felony count involving marijuana trafficking.

Five have received their sentences from Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi:

• Donald James Gibson was sentenced in January to three months in prison on each of four counts, with the sentences to be served concurrently. He was ordered to surrender to a federal correctional facility in the Pacific Northwest by this past Monday. Gibson was also placed on supervised release, the federal equivalent of probation, for three years.
• Michael B. “Dewey” Shapiro was sentenced in January to time served, although the court docket entry did not mention the time period. He was placed on supervised release for four years.
• John Debaptist Bouey III was sentenced Feb. 26 to the five days he had already served.
• Jessica Walsh, also known as Jessica Hackman, and Victoria Fiore were both sentenced last month to the two days in custody they each had previously served and placed on supervised release for two years. Walsh was also fined $4,000 and Fiore, $2,000.

Sentencing is currently set for Roland Gregory Ignacio and Richard Bruce Turpen on April 21, for Perry Emilio Policicchio on April 24, for Susanne Lenore Friend and Timothy M. Mann on June 16, and for Aaron George Zeeman on June 18.

It was not clear from court records as to the status of the case of Wesley Mark Sudbury, the last of the co-defendants. A call to his Honolulu attorney was not immediately returned.