Pubdate: Fri, 06 Dec 2013
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2013 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Tiffany Revelle

MENDOCINO COUNTY JUDGE'S MARIJUANA CASE RULING WILL STAND

A local judge's ruling to throw out evidence from a vehicle search 
that resulted from the driver's admission that he had marijuana and a 
card authorizing him to use it as medicine went unchallenged and 
unpublished after the deadline to appeal it came and went.

The Mendocino County District Attorney's Office had two weeks to file 
an appeal after Mendocino County Superior Court judge Ann Moorman 
rendered her Nov. 8 decision, but did not do so, according to 
Mendocino County Deputy Public Defender Eric Rennert. Had an appeal 
been filed, the case would have gone before the state Court of 
Appeals and could have been used as statewide precedent for similar 
cases, and would have been the first of its kind, Rennert said previously.

Moorman ruled last month in favor of a motion, prepared by Assistant 
Public Defender Carly Dolan, to suppress the evidence used to charge 
her client, Kevin R. Hawkins, 55, of Cloverdale, with possessing 
methamphetamine when a Ukiah Police Department officer pulled him 
over on South State Street and searched his vehicle.

The officer didn't have reason to believe he would find evidence of a 
crime, so he hadn't established proper grounds to search Hawkins' 
vehicle, Moorman ruled.

At issue was whether a medical marijuana patient's admission of 
having marijuana and a valid doctor's recommendation constitutes 
probable cause for law enforcement to search, according to Rennert, 
who argued the motion when Moorman heard it last month. He said 
previously that no case law existed to answer that question.

Hawkins was pulled over by a UPD officer at 3:50 a.m. April 18 for a 
traffic violation. While the officer was checking his driver's 
license, registration and proof of insurance, he asked Hawkins if he 
had "anything illegal" in the car, according to Moorman's ruling.

Hawkins told the officer that he had less than an ounce of marijuana 
in the car with him, and showed him a Proposition 215 card 
(Compassionate Use Act of 1996) issued by the county of Mendocino 
without an expiration date because of "a chronic and terminal 
condition," Moorman's ruling said.

The officer searched Hawkins' car because of Hawkins' admission that 
he had the drug, according to Moorman's ruling. The "totality of the 
circumstances," including Hawkins' admission and "a complete absence 
of (marijuana) odor or impaired driving, or evidence of a larger 
amount of marijuana in the car" influenced Moorman's decision, 
according to the document.
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