In 2020, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. found themselves on the wrong end of the law for their plans to kidnap Michigan Mayor Gretchen Whitmer during what authorities called a government uprising. But as closing arguments are now being heard in the case, defense attorney Joshua Blanchard claims there’s been a huge misunderstanding.
Blanchard said the two hooligans only talk big because they’re habitual potheads with no address in the real world. They weren’t really gonna do it. He said Croft was “frankly high on marijuana all the time,” and that he’s a “stoner pirate kind of whack nut” in a colonial tri-corned hat.
Since Michigan legalized marijuana in 2018, and the guys never acted out their THC-enhanced plans, in the words of the great Alfred E. Newman, “What ‘me’ worry?”
Croft’s girlfriend told the jury that her long-haul trucker beau blows more than diesel smoke when he’s barreling down the highway.
When Croft told his FB friends that Michigan’s mayor should be hung for treason, he was just joshing. And despite evidence presented by prosecutors of how Croft’s good bud Fox suggested Whitmer be “hog-tied” and drowned in Lake Michigan, he’s also a habitual connoisseur of the euphoric herb.
Detroit-area attorney Henry M. Scharg weighed in on the trial by suggesting that the defense is attempting to convince the jury that both of the men’s judgment had been, pardon the pun, “very clouded.”
As a trial observer only, Scharg said, “You’re in an altered state. When you say things, you don’t really mean it. I don’t think it’s a really strong defense, but sometimes you’re looking for a juror as a holdout, something to rest their position on. Throw it out. Maybe the fish will bite.”
All things considered, the pot plan isn’t all that far-fetched. This is the second go-’round for Fox and Croft after a locked jury in April couldn’t break a tie to lock ‘em up or let ‘em go.
Two other guys who were involved in the questionable deviant act were already acquitted. But, what isn’t helping now is how yet two others pleaded guilty in exchange for leniency, and they’ve been singing for their supper.
Enter FBI undercover agent Dan Chappel who had managed to infiltrate the group. His testimony might just help the guys out. He said that when he and Fox had driven to the mayor’s lakeside vacation home to scout it out that Fox had been hitting his pot pipe throughout the entire day.
Chappel said that when the two of them had stopped at a boat launch at Lake Birch to assess its usability, Fox had even shared his marijuana with a stranger.
Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons asked Chappel, “Adam Fox routinely smoked marijuana in your presence, true?” All Chappel could truthfully answer was, “He did smoke, yes.”
Croft, 46, is a reasonably well-established pothead from Bear, Delaware, who earns a decent income. On the other hand, Fox, 39, who doesn’t do quite as well, lives in a basement beneath a vacuum cleaner shop outside of Grand Rapids.
It’s doubtful that either man minds being portrayed for the stoners they are if it’ll get them off the hook. This isn’t saying they weren’t going to attempt the kidnapping, and they may very well have, but you have to admit, it’s a viable and somewhat humorous defense that just might work. We’ll see…
