“Voters went ahead and voted, and it’s time to start moving forward and doing something about this issue instead of trying to obstruct it at every opportunity.”
Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana was behind the 2024 campaign to legalize and regulate medical cannabis, a day after a Hall County jury convicted one of the campaign’s volunteer notaries on 24 felony counts.
A six-person jury convicted Jacy C. Todd, 55, of York, on Wednesday of 23 counts of “official misconduct” stemming from 23 days of improper notarizations involving solicitation circulator Michael K. Egbert, 67, of Grand Island. Todd was also found guilty of lying at an appearance in October 2024 as part of a separate trial in which the campaign had enough valid petition signatures.
Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong, after the 2024 election, issued a 57-page order in favor of the campaign in another case, saying the measures were improperly placed on the ballot.
Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, told reporters Thursday that Strong’s verdict came after a four-day trial with many witnesses and experts.
“We, I stand by it, my organization is there and I think the voters are behind that they were absolutely legal to vote,” Eggers said. “Voters went ahead and voted, and it’s time to start moving forward and doing something about this issue instead of trying to obstruct it at every opportunity.”
In November 2024, Nebraskans voted to legalize and regulate medical cannabis. The laws entered into force on December 12, 2024.
86,499 valid signatures are required
The campaign needed at least 86,499 valid signatures for each measure. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen secured 89,962 valid signatures for legalizing medical cannabis, and 89,856 for regulating it. The case did not address county-specific signature requirements.
Strong upheld the presumptive validity of the more than 4,000 signatures accepted by Todd on both measures, but said the more than 1,000 validated signatures collected by Egbert — except for a dozen notarized by Todd — lost the presumption of validity.
Egbert admitted to forging signatures using a phone book and pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a Class I felony count of “attempting” to falsify his circulator’s sworn applications.
Former state Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, a marijuana opponent who filed the Lancaster County civil suit, has appealed Strong’s decision to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Evnen and Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R), who made similar arguments to Kuehn’s against the campaign, also appealed.
The case went to the Supreme Court on December 3. They have not yet given a decision.
Hilgers, who coordinated with Hall County District Attorney Marty Klein on Todd’s criminal case, said Todd’s case provided “evidence of a systematic scheme in which the law was routinely broken.”
“As we’ve said up until now, the medical marijuana demand campaign was built on fraud and criminals and ultimately should never have been on the ballot,” Hilgers said Wednesday.
The campaign has denied that wrongdoing is widespread, but has admitted that some mistakes have been made. Strong corrected some of these errors in his judgment.
Appeal from the Supreme Court
Todd’s soon after conviction On Wednesday, Kuehn’s attorneys filed a motion with the Supreme Court asking the justices to consider Todd’s conviction and other trial materials.
In the filing, attorneys said the conviction is in “direct contrast” to Strong’s ruling on Todd.
Todd, in the Lancaster County case and again this week, has denied wrongdoing. Egbert also testified at two trials where he said he has a neurological disease that affects his memory. Egbert said he never signed his petitions in Todd’s presence, which is improper notarization.
During the civil trial, Strong said “Egbert’s credibility issues are more serious” than Todd’s and that Kuehn and Evnen had not shown a “preponderance of the evidence” that any other notarized petition by Todd should have lost the “presumption of validity.”
“Presumption of validity” means signatures verified by local county officials and legally collected by an affidavit of an approved circulator.
If a signature loses the presumption of validity, the campaign may have the opportunity to recover the signature in a second phase of the trial. Revoking both petitions would require almost 3,500 signatures to lose the presumption of validity.
Even if all of Todd’s notarized signatures lose the presumption of validity, the campaign would still meet the threshold for the ballot.
This week, a central Nebraska jury sided with the version of events described by Egbert and state and local prosecutors. Todd’s attorney said Todd would appeal after the 9 a.m. sentencing hearing on April 22.
Eggers did not say whether he was concerned that Todd’s conviction could affect the appeal, but said the campaigns are awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I believe the Supreme Court is the body that will make a reasonable ruling on this matter,” Eggers said. “They will consider the things they need and the appeal that has been presented to them, but I think they are still at a time to make a decision.”
This story was first published by the Nebraska Examiner.
Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.