Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2007
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Knight Ridder
Contact:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Author: Josh Richman, Medianews Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal (Ed Rosenthal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

'GANJA GURU' RECONVICTED BUT WON'T PAY

Rosenthal Already Has Served His One-Day Sentence and Won't Face 
Prison, Fine or Probation

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Oakland 
"Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal on Wednesday of three of the five 
marijuana-growing felonies of which he stood accused.

After starting deliberations Tuesday afternoon, jurors convicted 
Rosenthal, 62, of one conspiracy count; one count of growing, 
intending to distribute and distributing marijuana; and one count of 
using a commercial building -- 1419 Mandela Parkway in Oakland -- as 
a site for growing and distributing marijuana.

But they acquitted him of growing and distributing marijuana at the 
Harm Reduction Center medical-marijuana club on San Francisco's Sixth 
Street, and they deadlocked on whether he had conspired to do so.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer -- who presided over Rosenthal's 
first trial in 2003, and has made it clear that he believes Rosenthal 
should not have been retried -- told Assistant U.S. Attorney George 
Bevan to call whichever superiors he needed for approval to have that 
final count dropped, as he would not brook yet another retrial in his 
courtroom. The charge was dropped within about an hour.

So, more than six years after federal agents raided the Mandela 
Parkway warehouse, the Harm Reduction Center, Rosenthal's home and 
other sites, seizing thousands of marijuana plants, Rosenthal now 
faces no prison time, no fine and no probation at all.

That's because Bevan and Breyer agreed months ago that Rosenthal 
could not be sentenced now to anything beyond the one day of time -- 
already served -- to which he was sentenced for his 2003 convictions 
in the same case, overturned last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals due to juror misconduct. Rosenthal is scheduled to be 
"sentenced" next Wednesday, but he'll walk free.

Prosecutors have not publicly discussed their motives and goals in 
retrying Rosenthal. It could be that they wanted him to have felony 
convictions on his record should he ever be busted again, or to send 
a message to other medical marijuana advocates, or simply to chalk up 
a win in so long running and high profile a case.

"I think I'm gonna flee to Canada though in the next 24 hours, just 
so they can bring me back for sentencing," Rosenthal quipped after 
Wednesday's verdict. "I feel like the whole thing is a parody. ... 
It's not going to really change my life much one way or the other."

But he intends to appeal these convictions nonetheless as a travesty 
of justice, he said.

Robert Amparan, one of Rosenthal's attorneys, said he first will file 
a motion for a new trial. Breyer seems unlikely to grant such a 
motion, given his disdain for this second trial. Amparan also said 
his own strength is jury trial and he wants another attorney to 
review his work with fresh eyes, so he anticipates Rosenthal will 
retain new counsel for the appeal.

Prosecutors had re-indicted Rosenthal in October with these charges 
as well as nine tax-evasion and money-laundering counts, but Breyer 
tossed out all the financial counts in March, deeming them to be 
vindictive prosecution.

As in his first trial, these jurors were not allowed to hear any 
testimony about the fact that Rosenthal was acting under the auspices 
of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative -- deemed an officer of 
the city by Oakland's City Council -- to grow marijuana for use under 
the state's medical marijuana law. Federal law still bans all 
cultivation, possession and use of marijuana.

"Whether they know it or not, the jury voted against their own 
self-interest," Rosenthal said. "At some point they're going to wake 
up and realize the enormity of what they did, and they're going to 
live with that for the rest of their lives the way the previous jury did."

Most of the jurors in Rosenthal's 2003 trial renounced their verdict 
within hours of rendering it, saying they felt the exclusion of his 
medical motives from the trial had railroaded them into convicting him.

"It's a cruel thing for the government to impose upon its citizens, 
the idea that they have to leave their conscience behind when they 
vote in the jury box. That should be part of it, and so should 
justice," Rosenthal said.

Amparan said he's concerned Rosenthal's re-conviction will embolden 
federal authorities to crack down on medical marijuana throughout 
California and elsewhere. If the federal government could persuade a 
Bay Area jury to convict someone who had been acting under Oakland's 
municipal authority, he said, everyone is now at risk "be they a 
dispensary, be they a grower, be they a patient."

Rosenthal said he is working with a pair of state legislators to 
draft a bill that would grant providers more explicit protection 
under state law; he expects to have an announcement on that within 
the next few weeks. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake