By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The woman who secured a business license for the short-lived Hub City Natural Medicine was convicted yesterday of maintaining a building for controlled substances purposes.
A jury in Lewis County Superior Court took only about a half hour to find Lauri Spangler guilty, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meager said.
Last spring, her trial on the same charge ended in a hung jury after about five hours of deliberations.
Spangler was charged in September 2012 in connection with what the city of Centralia said was an illegal marijuana dispensary, which was raided and shut down soon after it appeared on Tower Avenue the year before.
The storefront opened in early 2011 with a city-granted business license, one that slid past officials with a description of its nature as “education and sales of natural medicine.”
Police Chief Bob Berg’s initials were among those placed on the application as it went through the approval process, although jurors were told Berg authorized someone in his department to affix his initials to such paperwork.
Judge Nelson Hunt presided over the two-day trial.
Spangler was the only one of four individuals in the case to go to trial. The others’ cases have been settled with plea agreements.
Voters decriminalized recreational use of marijuana for those over 21 at the end of 2012, and the state is currently the midst of issuing business licenses to growers, processors and retailers.
Meagher said the standard sentencing range for Spangler’s offense is between one year and a day up to 20 months in prison.
Spangler appeared in court briefly this afternoon to set a date for sentencing, but her lawyer was unavailable, so she will return next Thursday to set a date.
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For background, read about the 2013 trial, “Centralia marijuana store case goes to trial” from Wednesday May 15, 2013, here [1]