cannabisnews.com: Area Man Sues Over Marijuana Photos










  Area Man Sues Over Marijuana Photos

Posted by FoM on December 07, 2001 at 09:22:48 PT
By Susan McRoberts, Staff Writer 
Source: Pasadena Star-News 

Four days after a Whittier man was arrested when a drug store developed his photographs of his backyard marijuana crop and turned them in to police, a Montebello man had the same thing happen to him. However, while Joseph Lee Louis Thompson, 26, of Whittier has been charged with simple misdemeanor possession, Glenn Randall Miller, 42, of Montebello is now facing three felony counts that could put him away for life if convicted, his attorneys said Thursday. 
Miller's attorneys appeared with him at a news conference at his mobile home in Montebello to announce a lawsuit filed by him against Sav-On, the chain that developed Miller's pictures and gave a duplicate copy to Montebello police. The suit accuses the retailer of violating Miller's civil rights. "This is an issue of privacy," said Joseph L. Lisoni, Miller's attorney. "He is dying and the marijuana was simply to relieve him of his pain and get his appetite back." Officials for Sav-On had no comment on the suit. Miller, who appeared extremely thin, said he has emphysema, heart disease, back injuries and a blood pressure problem. In addition, he had stomach surgery about a year ago, he said. "I was taking those pictures in hopes of getting a prescription from my doctor," Miller said. "But now, with criminal charges pending against me, I can't." In Thompson's case, Rite-Aid developed photographs he says he intended to send to a pro-marijuana magazine. Thompson posed next to his backyard crop, smelling a mature bud. Miller did not pose with his plants, said Fred Witherspoon, who is representing him in the criminal matter. "This individual did not appear in them and there was no relation to where he lived," he said. Miller is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 11 on one felony count of possession of marijuana and two felony counts of possession for sale. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in a state prison, said Lisoni. "He wasn't selling it," Witherspoon said. "There were only two plants." Meanwhile, Thompson faces a maximum penalty of 6 months in county jail and a $5,000 fine if convicted of misdemeanor possession. He is due in court for a pretrial hearing on Jan. 9. "We want to warn the public about Sav-On," Lisoni said. "Our privacy is now at risk at Sav-On Drug Stores. We tried to settle this case without a lawsuit because Mr. Miller only has a few months to live, and they absolutely refused to discuss it. Their attitude was 'too bad, so sad.' Now, they've made a federal case out of it." Thursday morning, Sav-On's attorneys had the case shifted from state court to federal jurisdiction, he said. The suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages. Note: Glenn Miller says store violated civil rights by giving cops pictures.Source: Pasadena Star-News, The (CA)Author: Susan McRobertsPublished: December 7, 2001Copyright: 2001 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Los Angeles Newspaper Group, Inc.Contact: jim.lawitz sgvn.comWebsite: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Related Articles:Legal Pot-Smoker from Boca Sues Airline http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11507.shtmlClaim Nets Cash for Confiscated Stashhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11446.shtml

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Comment #9 posted by Iceback on December 09, 2001 at 03:37:32 PT
Boycott?
Sounds to me like Sav-on is abusing the legal system in order to eliminate a non-commercial therapy that I'm sure competes directly with a slough of "legal" and highly profitable drugs that Sav-On sells. Can you say "racketeering?" Anyone for a boycott of Sav-On, Osco and Albertsons?
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Comment #8 posted by freedom fighter on December 09, 2001 at 00:23:36 PT
isobar2000
http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=sav-on+drug+stores&hc=0&hs=0 http://www.talbot.edu/index.cfm?file=transitions/drug_stores.cfm&menu=transitions3.cfmI reread your question and understood what you are asking..Sav-on drug stores owned by Albertson stores/Osco company..Check these links...ff
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Comment #7 posted by freedom fighter on December 09, 2001 at 00:01:45 PT
isobar2000
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/s-asp-bin/sharedsitepages/feedback.asp?puid=1451Not sure if this what you want, but this link is a feedback to the "newspaper"...ff
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Comment #6 posted by isobar2000 on December 08, 2001 at 15:18:57 PT:
WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?
Would somebody get an e-mail address for save on, so that we can write them and let them know our outrage over their unmoral if not illegal actions.
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Comment #4 posted by troll420 on December 08, 2001 at 01:09:48 PT

P O L A R O I D
Say people, use a polaroid or digital camara. The only other way is if your buddies at the photo place. I hear WalMart will fire their employies for doing the crap that those Rite-Aid and Sav-On guys did. I think that Rite-Aid and Sav-On deserve to pay these guys some money. I've been in trouble with the law over pot and the legal fees alone can eat you alive. That isn't to mention the time in jail, loss of time with family and friends and the negative arua people seem to put around you when you've been arrested. Maybe this time around the photo people of the world will realize that they are to develope the pictures, not judge them. 
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 07, 2001 at 11:10:50 PT

JR I agree
I was confused why someone would think it was safe to use anything but a Digital Camera. It is a shame that you have to fear that people could turn you in for whatever they feel is wrong. Someone could take a picture of their naked baby on a bear skin rug like people did years ago and someone might think it's obscene or something. We are getting so controlled we are making bin Laden proud of how well we are learning the lessons he makes his people obey. That is down right sad.
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Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on December 07, 2001 at 10:56:58 PT

DIGITAL CAMERAS, people!!!
  If you're going to take a photograph of something you don't want the authorities to know about, take the kind of photo you don't have to develop! Digital cameras are getting very affordable - especially when you figure you'll never pay for film again - and if you can't afford one of them, try a polaroid.  The same thing happened a few years ago with Wolf Camera in Tennessee. A few years later, Wolf Camera declared bankruptcy. Coincidence? Maybe, but I know a -lot- of people who said they'd never go back to Wolf Camera after hearing the story. Hopefully, Sav-On Drugs (an ironic name if ever I've heard one) will face a similar fate.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 07, 2001 at 09:46:49 PT

Related Article from Business Wire
Terminally Ill Man Files Lawsuit Against Sav-On for Invasion of Privacy and False Imprisonment
 
 
Updated: Thu, Dec 06 3:15 PM EST 

MONTEBELLO, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) - Glenn Randall Miller, a terminally ill, unemployed man who was jailed and faces criminal charges as a result of photographs supplied to police by a Sav-On Drug Store employee, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Sav-On Drugs Stores, Inc. for Invasion of Privacy and False Imprisonment. The lawsuit was announced today during a News Conference held in the back yard of Miller's trailer home in Montebello.

Miller, who suffers from cardio-vascular and pulmonary disease, lung disease, emphysema, scoliosis and other serious maladies, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with three violations relating to the possession, use and potential sale of marijuana. His arraignment is scheduled for December 11 in the East Los Angeles Municipal Court.

According to Miller's civil attorneys, Joe Lisoni and Steven E. Weinberger, he has been taking marijuana solely for medicinal purposes. They emphasized the marijuana not only eases his pain but also reduces his blood pressure and provides him with an appetite so he eats regularly and properly. Recently, he began growing marijuana in his back yard solely for his own use. To chart the growth and record the composition of the marijuana, he would periodically take photographs, they reported. Lisoni said Miller took a roll of film into the Sav-On Drug Store at 802 W. Whittier Blvd. in Montebello on October 3 of this year for one-hour development. An employee of Sav-On saw the marijuana in the photographs, made a duplicate set and notified the Montebello Police Department. Miller's home was subsequently searched and he was arrested, spending a day in jail before being released on bail.

Commenting on the cause and purpose of the lawsuit, Lisoni remarked: "What Sav-On did to Mr. Miller was reprehensible. Sav-On stole his personal property and violated his right of privacy by turning over the photographs to the police. In effect, Sav-On became the `judge and jury' of what his privacy rights were. Sav-On's sole job is to develop film, not examine the photographs for content. Where do they feel the right to privacy ends? Do celebrities have to worry that Sav-On will make public health conditions they may have based on the prescriptions they have filled at its stores? One would think the public may have to think twice about trusting Sav-On."

Stressing the physical harm and emotional trauma which Miller experienced from Sav-On's allegedly illegal actions, Weinberger pointed out: "Here is a terminally ill man, with no family and no visible means of support, being subjected to this kind of treatment. His time in jail was injurious to his physical health, he suffered embarrassment and humiliation and now he is forced to spend what little money he has on legal fees and bail bonds." Weinberger added that Miller has no immediate source of income as he has not worked in two years and his disability payments expired some time ago.

Miller indicated he was a longtime customer of that particular Sav-On store and had always had his prescriptions filled there. Now he uses another pharmacy and his medicine costs more. "I am deeply shocked that Sav-On would take it upon themselves to interfere with someone's life like that," he said. Miller also decried the fact that society was "out of line" in not allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. "It certainly has been a great benefit to me," he emphasized.

As to his future, Miller, 42, an Air Force veteran who was employed as an electronic circuit board assembler until being forced to quit work because of his failing health, said: "I am just trying to survive, as long and as well as I can - this terrible situation though certainly doesn't help."

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