Pubdate: Fri, 20 Aug 2004
Source: Lake County Record-Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2004 Record-Bee
Contact:  http://www.record-bee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3384
Author: John Lindblom, Record-Bee Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LEPP ARRAIGNED IN FEDERAL COURT

Upper Lake --  Released on his own recognizance by federal authorities, 
medical marijuana grower Eddy Lepp returned to a full house and empty 
fields Thursday night.

Lepp was in a San Francisco federal court Thursday. He was arraigned on 
charges that are presumed to be possession of marijuana with intent to 
distribute.

"He has talked to an attorney (believed to be Dennis Robbie of Oakland) and 
they are processing him out of the Federal Court Building in San Francisco 
as we speak," Lepp's wife, Linda, told a Record-Bee reporter at the 
couple's Upper Lake home at about 5 p.m. Thursday.

"He was released O.R. and we have somebody on the way down to pick him up."

Linda Lepp had a crowd of people around her in the living room as she 
spoke. Several were among the dozen who were arrested along with Lepp early 
Wednesday by federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials and 
Lake County sheriff's deputies who went to the couple's hilltop house. 
Others were patients dependent on the marijuana grown by Lepp. Still others 
were among Lepp's oldest and best friends.

More people were on the edge of Highway 20 down the hill from Lepp's house, 
picketing, protesting and shouting good naturedly at motorists. The healthy 
stand of marijuana across the fence from the protesters had been reduced to 
stubble.

Yet more people, said Linda Lepp, picketed in the Federal Building in San 
Francisco protesting against the laying to waste of Lepp's crop.

Gain Chao, a senior at Upper Lake High School, wondered about actions of a 
day earlier when officers stormed in on the field bordering the patch where 
her family grows the strawberries it sells at its roadside stand. Lepp, she 
said, seemed "really nice" the one time she met him.

"Just like the horses on the field on the other side, it (marijuana) 
doesn't bother us at all," she said. "But Eddy told me once he had to have 
nine guards every night."

Jeff Watt, a volunteer at Lepp's ministry who said he recently came down 
from Oregon, was one of those arrested at Lepp's home Wednesday.

"I just got out of jail today. Everyone else got out yesterday," he said. 
"They told me I was getting arrested for selling and distributing. Then, my 
release paper said for intoxication only.

"No, I had not been drinking," Watt added. "There's no alcohol allowed on 
the premises. They can't pin anything on us because we're all volunteers. I 
get room and board. I can't even afford shoes for myself."

Watt said Lepp was cooperative with the federal officials who came to his 
home, "but they tackled him anyway, pinned his arms behind his back and 
handcuffed him."

Linda Lepp said the raid might have been prevented if the couple had 
obtained an injunction against such actions.

"Personally, I think what prompted this is we didn't have an injunction in 
our paperwork from when they did this in 2002," she said.

"We need to finally get to court to have a judge say yes or no whether they 
(DEA) have the jurisdiction to do this to medical marijuana in our state. 
We're supposed to be there (in court) Thursday (Aug. 26) and they did this 
to hurt him."

Linda barely escaped arrest herself. She was sleeping elsewhere for health 
reasons when her cell phone rang. It was Eddy, calling to tell her to stay 
away from the house. He didn't get the chance to say that. But he didn't 
need to. Linda got the message when she heard one of the officers who came 
into the house barking orders.

Lepp's position all along is that the marijuana grown in his fields is not 
his, but that of ill people who need it.

"I don't know how many, but I think it's in the thousands of people who are 
not going to have their medication and will end up back on alcohol and 
those (expletive) pills," said Linda.

"I'm extremely mad because they're turning our healing fields into killing 
fields."
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