Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2001
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Contra Costa Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.contracostatimes.com/contact_us/letters.htm
Website: http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Author: Brian Anderson

BAIL UPPED FOR SUSPECT IN POT CASE

A Judge Raises The Bond For Joseph Ratto, 66, To $150,000 For Marijuana 
Cultivation Charges

PLEASANTON -- A Dublin man who police arrested with help from a San Ramon 
Valley teacher and a tipster was jailed Wednesday after a judge upped his 
bail on charges accusing him of growing nearly a dozen marijuana plants.

Joseph Ratto, 66, was taken to Santa Rita Jail after Judge Ronald Hyde 
raised his bail to $150,000 from $25,000, citing two felony charges of 
cultivating marijuana and possession of the drug for sale.

"This is a major, major, major deal," Hyde said during a hearing. "That's a 
lot more than personal use."

Ratto, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday but later withdrew it, is scheduled 
to be arraigned Friday.

The case began in September after a regular informant offered to tell 
Dublin police about a local pot grower in exchange for some of the 
confiscated drugs, according to a police report. When officers declined the 
offer and again asked for information, the tipster requested $4,000 to 
point detectives in the right direction, records showed.

Officers again turned down the proposal and the informant, who admitted to 
stealing plants from the grower before, told them of a personal plan to 
steal the plants and sell them on the street, records showed. Officers said 
that was not the best idea and the location of the house in the 8100 block 
of Hollanda Court was eventually revealed.

Police staked out the house and ultimately followed a woman who was seen 
leaving. Officers stopped her for speeding on San Ramon Road, where the San 
Ramon Valley teacher admitted to smoking marijuana earlier and having a 
small amount of the drug in her car, a police report stated.

"I smoke marijuana about once a week because I don't drink and because I 
like it," the 41-year-old woman said in a statement to police.

Ratto, who she told police was a former neighbor, grew marijuana and had 
smoked it with her on several prior occasions, she said in court records.

Detectives went back to the house with a search warrant, discovering the 
plants in the garage, a bedroom and elsewhere, records showed. Officers 
also found a loaded .38-caliber revolver on an ironing board in a bedroom.

Ratto showed police an ID card from the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' 
Cooperative and a prescription giving him permission to grow up to six 
plants, police said in a report. He said he suffers from chronic nausea, 
post-radiation therapy and chronic degenerative disc disease of the lumbar 
spine, according to records.

A Berkeley doctor had signed a prescription for marijuana.

Police estimated the street value of the marijuana at as high as $171,000.
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