cannabisnews.com: Sheriff Target in Contempt Case





Sheriff Target in Contempt Case
Posted by FoM on February 04, 2000 at 10:46:31 PT
By Maline Hazle, Record Searchlight
Source: Record Searchlight
Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope should be cited for contempt, perhaps even jailed, for orchestrating federal seizure of medicinal marijuana that a judge had ordered returned to Richard Levin, contends a petition filed late Thursday in Shasta County Superior Court.Also named in the petition are Undersheriff Larry Schaller and other ``as yet unidentified'' co-conspirators.
If Pope disagreed with Judge Bradley Boeckman's order he could have asked the district attorney to appeal it to the state appellate court, but ``the sheriff does not have the authority to simply overrule the court, disobey the court's order or thumb its nose at the court,'' said the petition, filed by Redding attorney Eric Berg on Levin's behalf.Schaller returned a call Thursday seeking comment from Pope.``I would repeat what the sheriff has said,'' Schaller said. ``The action taken was absolutely ethical and legal and in consultation with (county) counsel. We'll certainly be glad to address that with the court if they so inquire.''In December, Berg won an acquittal for Levin, 49, of Redding on charges of growing marijuana for sale. Jurors found that Levin was entitled to grow and use pot under Proposition 215, the 1996 voter-approved law that permits medicinal marijuana use with a doctor's permission, and that there was no evidence he intended to sell the drug.In early January, Boeckman ordered the release of the 41 long-dead plants and 1 pounds of marijuana confiscated by deputies when Levin was arrested in May 1998.Sheriff's officials went back to Boeckman a week after his first order to ask if they could destroy the marijuana, but the judge again ordered it returned.When Levin and Berg went to get the marijuana Jan. 21, they were told that it had been seized moments earlier by a federal drug agent.In the petition filed Thursday, Berg said that he originally had arranged to pick up the marijuana at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 but received a call from the Sheriff's Department that morning telling him to come in at 4 p.m.When he got there at 4 p.m. the pot was gone, and he was handed a copy of a seizure warrant that had been faxed from the U.S. attorney's Sacramento office at 12:04 p.m., Berg's petition says.Berg maintains his appointment time was changed ``in order to give the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent time to drive from Sacramento to Redding to seize the marijuana prior to the hour of 4 p.m. in order to interfere and frustrate Mr. Levin's effort to retrieve his marijuana.''Schaller disputed Berg's description of events.``He set the date and time, then tried to move it up,'' Schaller said. And even if Berg and Levin had arrived at 1:30 p.m., Schaller said, deputies already had the seizure order and would not have released the marijuana.But Berg argues in the petition that the U.S. magistrate who issued the seizure order exceeded his authority and the state constitution specifically forbids an administrative agency from refusing to enforce state law on the grounds that state and federal laws conflict.Pope, who had publicly decried the court's decision, never intended to return Levin's marijuana and ``never intended to obey the court's order,'' Berg wrote. He charges that the sheriff asked the DEA to obtain a seizure warrant so ``Pope would have a ready-made excuse'' for not obeying it.And in refusing to obey Boeckman's order to return Levin's marijuana, Berg wrote, Pope, Schaller and their department ``refused to enforce state law.''In order to ``deter such future misconduct on the sheriff's part,'' Berg said, ``it is essential that the court impose sanctions,'' including jail, a fine and an order to pay Levin's costs in the contempt action.Schaller said the sheriff is sworn to uphold both state and federal law, and, along with law enforcement statewide, is ``in a quandary'' that can only be resolved by ``emergency'' legislative clarification of Proposition 215.Berg, who is defending another medicinal marijuana case in Boeckman's court, was ill Thursday, but his staff said he will hold a press conference about Levin's motion.Jurors in the medicinal marijuana trial of Jim and Lydia Hall, a mother and son from Redding, were sent home Thursday after an associate told Boeckman of Berg's illness.Dr. Frank Fisher, a potential witness in the Hall case, did show up, a day after Boeckman had suggested that he could issue a bench warrant if Fisher refused to honor a subpoena to appear.Fisher, 46, who ran a clinic in Anderson, is charged with Medi-Cal fraud and three counts of manslaughter in the alleged overdose deaths of three patients for whom he prescribed an opium-based painkiller.Fisher, of Redding, also recommended medicinal marijuana use for Lydia Hall, according to testimony in the Hall case.Reporter Maline Hazle can be reached at 225-8266 or at a mhazle redding.com.Published: February 4, 2000© 2000 Record Searchlight - The E.W. Scripps Co. Related Articles:It's About Time The State Clarifies Med. Pot Rules-1/26/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4492.shtml Pot Must Go Back To Owner Judge Clarifies Order - 1/15/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4328.shtml Sheriff Still Pondering Medicinal Pot Policy - 1/14/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4321.shtmlPatient Doesn't Get Pot Back Yet - 1/12/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4281.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on February 04, 2000 at 11:11:35 PT
Housebreaking the Law
This is a clear case of the Good Ol' Boys network obstructing the law. First they say they are required to uphold Federal law, when they are not Federal officers. Then they employ a delaying tactic and use the time to contact Federal buddies (who probably would not have been aware of any attempt to recoup the cannabis had they not been contacted)who then break the CA State law by stealing the man's cannabis. When a puppy makes a mess in the house, you need to act right away. Usually by rubbing his nose in his own excrement and paddling his arse, so that he gets the idea he's made a boo-boo.Looks like some lawmen have begun to behave like their canine counterparts, and need to have a refresher course in proper behavior towards their masters - the people who pay their salaries. In short, they should have their noses rubbed in this gaffe and their backsides administratively paddled. The rest of the pack will see the end results of such transgressions and are likely to get the message.
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