Pubdate: Fri, 25 May 2001
Source: Record, The (CA)
Copyright: 2001 The Record
Contact:  http://www.recordnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/428
Author: Francis P. Garland
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case)

JUDGE FEARS POT RULING ILLEGAL

SAN ANDREAS -- Two Wallace ministers sentenced to probation for 
marijuana possession and given the green light to grow marijuana for 
medicinal purposes must return to court next week because a Calaveras 
County Superior Court judge fears the probation terms he approved are 
illegal.

Ricky Dewayne Garner, 43, and Sue Melinda Garner, 40, pleaded guilty 
Monday to a misdemeanor charge of possessing more than an ounce of 
marijuana as part of a plea bargain endorsed by Judge Douglas 
Mewhinney.

But it's possible those pleas could be withdrawn and the matter set 
for trial again, depending on the outcome of a hearing set for a week 
from today.

Mewhinney essentially believes he could be aiding and abetting a 
federal felony by approving the probation terms that would allow the 
Garners to grow marijuana for themselves and those in their care.

In exchange for pleading guilty to the misdemeanor 
marijuana-possession charges, the Garners, ministers of the Northern 
Lights Church, were placed on two years' court probation and agreed 
to give up their right to be free of searches.

They also agreed to abide by medical-marijuana guidelines the county 
Board of Supervisors adopted last year to help law enforcement, 
county agencies and individuals implement Proposition 215. Those 
guidelines allow for six marijuana plants and 2 pounds for each 
person who has a doctor's recommendation for medicinal marijuana use.

Proposition 215, approved by state voters in 1996, allows people 
suffering from certain medical conditions to use marijuana with a 
doctor's recommendation. It also states that marijuana possession and 
cultivation laws do not apply to a legitimate medical-marijuana 
patient or the patient's primary caregiver.

A primary caregiver is a person who has consistently assumed 
responsibility for a medical-marijuana patient's housing, health or 
safety.

The Garners were charged with felony marijuana cultivation after law 
enforcement agents raided their property last year and found 290 
marijuana plants.

The Garners claimed they were growing marijuana for themselves and 
more than a dozen other members of their congregation, all of whom 
had doctors' recommendations.

The two were ordered to stand trial on the felony charges and the 
trial was scheduled to start Wednesday. But they agreed to the terms 
of a plea bargain Monday and Mewhinney pronounced their sentences the 
same day.

But Mewhinney called the Garners' attorneys and Seth Matthews, a 
deputy district attorney, on Tuesday and conducted a conference call, 
during which he outlined his concerns. Those concerns largely stemmed 
from the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held the Oakland 
Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, by distributing medicinal marijuana, was 
not exempt from prosecution under federal drug laws.
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