Pubdate: Wed, 08 Feb 2012
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2012 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Janet O'Neill

ATTORNEYS EMPLOY UNUSUAL TACTIC IN MARIJUANA CASE

Red Bluff Pair Seeking Nonjury Trial

RED BLUFF -- Attorneys for a Red Bluff pair charged in connection with
a marijuana-growing operation are seeking a nonjury trial that would
speed the route to an appeal.

Longtime event promoter Joe Froome, 49, and his son-in-law,
28-year-old Daniel Ludwig, were in Tehama County Superior Court on
Tuesday with their Oakland attorneys, William Panzer and James Silva.
Froome and Ludwig are facing charges of cultivation of marijuana and
possession of marijuana for sale.

Judge S. William Abel, the retired Colusa County Superior Court jurist
assigned to the case, granted a two-week delay in pretrial
proceedings. In the meantime, defense lawyers and Assistant District
Attorney Matt Rogers will determine what in the case they can agree
on, returning to court at 9 a.m. Feb. 21.

A two-week jury trial is set to begin March 5, but Panzer said after
the hearing he's seeking a "slow plea," essentially a court trial in
which the judge would review preliminary hearing transcripts and
agreed-upon facts in the case and issue a ruling. That would allow the
defense to preserve all its appellate issues for consideration by the
higher court, the 3rd District Court of Appeal, Panzer said.

At issue throughout the case, now in its third year, is whether
patients have a right to associate and exchange money for their
cannabis. The prosecution has challenged that, and "the court has
basically agreed with the people, which would render all of our
evidence inadmissible," Panzer said. Should the judge agree to the
slow-plea proposal, that hearing presumably would go forward March
5.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Rogers said in his north state
experience the kind of proceeding Panzer envisions is highly unusual,
noting that court trials typically include witness testimony.

"I do not know of this (ever) being done in Tehama County," he said
Tuesday afternoon.

Panzer is co-author of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of
1996.

Froome and Ludwig maintain they were running a legal medical cannabis
collective at the time of an Oct. 21, 2009, raid on a Baker Road
warehouse. Agents seized more than 400 plants and 30 pounds of drying
marijuana.

Froome also faces eight counts of money laundering in the case.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.