Pubdate: Fri, 17 Nov 2000
Source: Marin Independent Journal (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Marin Independent Journal
Contact:  150 Alameda del Prado, Novato, CA 94949
Website: http://www.marinij.com/
Author: Guy Ashley
Bookmark: medicinal cannabis clippings http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm

DA RECALL PETITIONS SUBMITTED

Marin District Attorney Paula Kamena may face a recall vote next year after 
foes of her medical marijuana policies and her handling of an attempted 
child abduction case filed petitions yesterday containing far more 
signatures than required to force a vote.

A spirited contingent of recall supporters gathered outside the Marin 
Registrar of Voters offices in San Rafael yesterday as Lynnette Shaw, 
founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, presented 
three boxes of petitions that she said contained 20,691 signatures in 
support of Kamena's recall.

If county officials verify that 13,756 of those signees are registered 
Marin voters, a election will be called May 8 to ask if Kamena should be 
recalled.

This special election would cost the county an estimated $500,000 to hold, 
Marin Registrar of Voters Michael Smith said.

"This is for the little people, who have the right to take to the streets 
and demand change," Shaw said in filing the petitions yesterday.

Shaw blasted prosecution guidelines Kamena instituted in medical marijuana 
cases as ineffective and a green light to law enforcement officers to seize 
all marijuana they find - and ask questions about medical necessities later.

"Her guidelines cite federal law that says all marijuana is contraband and 
may be confiscated," Shaw said.

She said that statement gives officers license to seize the pot, despite 
Kamena's guidelines saying that persons can possess six mature pot plants 
and a half ounce of dried marijuana if they can show a legitimate medical need.

"Her so-called guidelines mean nothing, because they are considered only 
after an arrest, after a person's medicine has been seized and destroyed."

Kamena says she is being unfairly targeted and that medical marijuana 
policies adopted by her office are among the most liberal in the state.

She also accused the recall campaign of misleading voters, by citing 
medical marijuana policies in urging people to sign petitions that fail to 
even mention medical pot.

Kamena said she was approached by a signature-gatherer at the Montecito 
Shopping Center in San Rafael two weeks ago, who told her that a recall was 
necessary because "dying AIDS patients are being prosecuted for medical 
marijuana."

"There isn't a single case of an AIDS patient that I know of who has been 
prosecuted," she said. "So this guy was saying things that were untrue and 
asking me to sign a petition that didn't say anything about medical marijuana."

Kamena also noted that her office has never taken the slightest action 
against Shaw's Fairfax-based distribution club for medical marijuana.

"Other counties send in their drug task force because they're selling (at 
the clubs)," Kamena said. Referring to Shaw, Kamena asked: "Is anyone 
bothering this woman?"

Without mentioning medical pot, petitions asking for Kamena's recall cite 
her role in the prosecution of a Novato mother for violating court orders 
growing out of an ugly child-custody dispute the woman had with an 
ex-boyfriend.

The woman, Carol Mardeusz, was convicted by a jury of four felonies and 
faces a sentencing hearing next week that could bring as much as four years 
in prison.

Meanwhile, efforts to recall three judges failed to achieve the necessary 
signatures by yesterday's deadline.

Only 567 of the required total of 35,481 signatures needed were filed 
yesterday in support of recalling judges Lynn Duryee, Michael Dufficy and 
Terrence Boren.

"Judges Duryee, Dufficy and Boren are very pleased to learn the recall 
effort has failed," said Gary Ragghianti, a San Rafael attorney who chaired 
the Committee to Retain an Independent Judiciary that was formed to defend 
the judges against the recall.

Ragghianti said the judges were thankful to the Marin citizens "who have 
supported them and the essential principle of an independent judiciary."

A fourth judge targeted in the recall movement, Verna Adams, has a petition 
deadline in March. Ragghianti said he was confident the "ill-advised" 
effort to recall Adams would fail as well.

Peter Romanowsky of Sausalito, who led the judicial recall effort, said: 
"We didn't have the financial support we needed and two of our most active 
signature gatherers were arrested and kept from helping our cause."

Another recall leader, Ron Mazzaferro, said yesterday that the signature 
requirement set by the county registrar is being challenged in the case of 
the judges. That 11,287 figure amounts to 20 percent of the last vote in a 
Marin Superior Court Judge election - in June 1998 - which county officials 
say abides by state recall statutes. Mazzaferro said the figure is 
arbitrary, especially in the case of Dufficy, who was not challenged in 
1998 and therefore didn't tally a single vote.

"Twenty percent of zero is still zero," Mazzaferro said.

The recall effort against Kamena was energized in May after the medical 
marijuana alliance entered the fray. Shaw said citizens who disagreed with 
Kamena's prosecution guidelines contributed at least $15,000 to the cause, 
which helped hire a handful of paid signature gatherers.

Michael Smith, the Marin registrar of voters, said workers in his office 
will spend the next several weeks combing over the petitions filed 
yesterday to ensure the signatures they contain were provided by registered 
Marin voters.

Smith has until Dec. 18 to verify the signatures.

If a recall election is called, the registrar's office will open a 
month-long nomination period in January asking for potential candidates for 
district attorney should Kamena be successfully recalled.

Shaw said the marijuana alliance would likely endorse an alternate 
candidate on the May ballot seeking Kamena's recall.

Kamena said she believes voters will support her and turn back the recall 
effort if a special election is called.

She cited her accomplishments in her nearly two years in office, including 
involvement in the creation of the Jeannette Prandi Center to help young 
victims of abuse and Marin's first-ever juvenile drug court.

She admitted she had purposely kept a low profile in recent months hoping 
the energy of the recall effort would wane. "If in fact they are 
successful, it will be time for me to respond in a more forceful way," she 
said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Thunder