SKOWHEGAN — The fate of a medical cannabis shop in Madison is now in a judge’s hands.

And if the town of Madison proves successful in showing that Simple Twist Cannabis Co. and its operator, Daniel P. Safranec, are in violation of its ordinance because it lacks a state license, the store at 97 Lakewood Road could be ordered to close and Safranec could face thousands of dollars in civil penalties.

Judge Erika Bristol listened to arguments Thursday at the Skowhegan District Court in a hearing that appeared to test her patience at times, as Safranec interrupted the proceeding several times and asked questions she could not answer.

Bristol said at the end of the hour-and-a-half hearing, which started five minutes late due to Safranec’s tardiness, she would take the matter under advisement and issue a written decision. She did not indicate when that would be.

A proposed judgment submitted by the town’s attorney, Kenneth Lexier of the Skowhegan law firm Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot, would order Safranec and Simple Twist Cannabis Co. to cease distribution and sale of cannabis, to reimburse $2,932.09 to the the town for its legal fees and to pay civil penalties of $300 per day, for a total of $29,100 since the town issued a notice of violation April 18.

Further, it says if Safranec complies with closing the store within 48 hours of a court order, the civil penalty would be reduced to $100 per day, for a total of $9,700.

Civil penalties imposed for a land use violation can range from $100 to $5,000 per day, under Maine statute.

The town’s legal argument in court filings is relatively simple. Safranec has not held a caregiver registry identification card from the Office of Cannabis Policy since July 2024. And because he does not have a state license, the town has not issued him a license to operate the retail cannabis shop, as required by an ordinance voters enacted last year.

Safranec, who represented himself, said in court and in an interview with the Morning Sentinel that his lack of a caregiver registry identification card is due to changes in the Office of Cannabis Policy licensing process from previous years.

“I’m under the impression that they illegally denied it,” Safranec said.

Appearing via videoconference, Elisa Ellis, director of licensing at the Office of Cannabis Policy, testified the office denied Safranec’s caregiver license application May 30, and he presently has no license to sell medical cannabis. Caregiver registry identification cards are issued to individuals, not business entities, she said.

Safranec held a caregiver registry identification card that expired July 9, 2024, and he submitted an application for renewal the day prior, Ellis said. But the renewal application was never completed, and Safranec continued to operate without a license for several months before he applied again, she said.

In March, a sheriff’s deputy acting as a “secret shopper” was able to buy cannabis without a medical card and reported that to the Office of Cannabis Policy, Ellis said. Two days later, without knowing that happened, an inspector who was in the area conducted an inspection, initially not knowing Safranec lacked a caregiver registry identification card, and issued several violations.

Madison Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Drew testified he issued a notice of violation to Safranec in April after the Office of Cannabis Policy notified him that Simple Twist Cannabis was selling cannabis without a license.

Safranec did not appeal the notice of violation within the allowed 30 days, Drew said. The town then filed its complaint in court in June.

At the time of the notice of violation, which ordered Safranec to cease operations, Safranec also had no local license, Drew said.

The town office did issue a temporary license to Safranec and Simple Twist Cannabis in early May, conditional on the Office of Cannabis Policy issuing Safranec a caregiver registry identification card, Town Manager Denise Ducharme testified. But it was immediately revoked when the Office of Cannabis Policy issued its denial of Safranec’s renewal application at the end of May, Ducharme said.

Safranec at first was unsure if he was going to testify as a sworn witness and asked multiple times about the “consequences” if he did not. He said he did not understand why the Office of Cannabis Policy had denied his renewal and appealed its denial.

“Year after year, we submitted paperwork. It was accurate,” Safranec testified. “And then all of sudden, it was submitted, and they’re saying it was inaccurate.”

Safranec said regulators wanted an LLC operating agreement, which he could not provide because his business is a C corporation. He said he left some information, like addresses of where he stores wholesale cannabis, blank out of concern it would appear on public records posted online.

Safranec also referenced what he saw as insufficient communication from the Office of Cannabis Policy, which sent him an email instead of certified mail about the denial.

Safranec did not call any witnesses Thursday as he said he was not aware before the hearing he could do so. He said the person who helped him with the Office of Cannabis Policy paperwork would have been able to testify via videoconference about the changes in the licensing process.

In addition to the civil case that the town filed, it is possible Safranec could also face criminal charges. Ducharme said previously the town referred the case to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, although Sheriff Dale Lancaster has declined to say whether his office is investigating.

In court, Bristol reminded Safranec of his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself, as she said she had heard information that indicated a risk of a criminal case. The judge said, however, that if Safranec chose to invoke that right, she could hold that against him as the case before her was a civil matter.

Lexier, the town’s attorney, at one point also questioned Safranec about the accuracy of a quote in a July 20 Morning Sentinel story, in which Safranec said: “Unless the police come here and arrest me and like nail the door shut. But then, after they leave, I’m going to unnail the door and open it back up.”

“Definitely. I told a federal judge that, too,” said Safranec, who in 2015 was sentenced to 12 months in prison for a federal marijuana manufacturing conviction in the Western District of New York.

“But you ended up in federal prison — but that’s another matter,” Lexier said.