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Attorney Joe Rogoway walks with Ryan English after English picked up his dope from the Sonoma County court system. KEFF KAN LEE/PD
By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Ryan English left the Sonoma County courthouse a happy man Friday after a judge returned five boxes of marijuana seized in a raid on his Healdsburg home more than a year ago.
The 29-year-old brain tumor survivor had been charged with three felonies, including possession for sale, but two judges ruled there was insufficient evidence that any crime had been committed.
It took months of legal wrangling to get the county Sheriff’s Office to release his 81 plants and two pounds of processed pot, but English, who now lives in Santa Rosa, finally prevailed. Using a handtruck, he wheeled the weed past the jail to his car, green buds showing out of the sides of the boxes.
“Finally, 15 months later,” English said. “I’m surprised it took as long as it did.”
It was an unusual sight in the Hall of Justice, in part because law enforcement and prosecutors often won’t accept that people with a legitimate medical condition can legally possess and grow marijuana, said Joe Rogoway, English’s lawyer.
California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215, allowing those with a doctor’s recommendation to have marijuana. Legislation in 2003 established possession limits and Sonoma County adopted its own regulations, allowing 3 pounds a year per patient and cultivation of up to 30 plants. People working in a cooperative, such as English, can grow more.
However, pot is still being seized and if charges are dismissed, police are reluctant to return marijuana, often destroying it instead.
In English’s case, Rogoway said prosecutors last year refiled criminal charges when English asked for his pot back. The second judge tossed the case after a preliminary hearing in April.
Rogoway said the “vindictive prosecution” wasted tax dollars at a time when the county can least afford it.
“They are prosecuting these cases as if there are no medical marijuana laws,” he said outside court. “They need a time machine to travel back to 1995. That’s where their understanding of the law remains.”
The District Attorney’s Office did not return calls Friday seeking comment.
Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Duenas said deputies respect local guidelines and seize marijuana or arrest people only if they have probable cause that a crime occurred.
Last year, Duenas said deputies seized more than 300,000 marijuana plants — the most in county history.
Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, its return requires a court order, even if charges are dropped.
“We still have to uphold the Constitution,” Duenas said. “If we release it, we will be in violation of federal law.”
He said deputies acted appropriately in the English case. The initial charges were dismissed when a detective failed to make a court hearing. Prosecutors re-filed because there was a suspicion English was selling pot, he said.
“We still believe we acted in good faith,” Duenas said.
English said he wasn’t selling pot. He was growing it for himself and two other people with medical conditions, he said.
Without it, he suffers migraine headaches from the tumor he had removed about 10 years ago.
“A doctor recommended it as an alternative to prescribed drugs,” he said. “It relieves the migraines.”
English is one of the many medical cannabis users in the county who have been thrust into the position of fighting for what is theirs, Rogoway said.
Many have yet to be vindicated for doing something the law and their doctors allow, he said.
“People shouldn’t have to go through what Mr. English did,” Rogoway said. “It’s something as a community we need to deal with.”
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The people voted for the Compassionate use of marijuana and sought to lessen the suffering of those who marijuana brings comfort. We intended that the systematic punishing of citizens caught in the machinery by the criminal justice system be alleviated. Without ever being convicted or even being heard by a group of peers you and I are subject to the cost of bail, the embarrassment of jail, the indignity by those in uniform who judge us without due process. Suddenly your life is consumed in ways by those following orders of others in places that seem to be unreachable and unaccountable. Suddenly the suffering that you must endure and was intended to be lessened is now reaching the same proportions as the system that was supposed to adhere to the compassionate voice of we the people.
I was in court June 2, the day before Mr. English vindication. I am facing 3 felonies for possessing 2 lbs of cannabis well within the guidelines of our county. The arresting officer in my case forgot to appear and couldn’t be reached in Calaveras where he was vacationing for the next 6 weeks.
Rather than dismiss the case and have the prosecution re file it the judge excused the officers absence and put the case out until he is available All of which rang uncomfortably familiar. Meanwhile i continue to be under supervision by the probation dept. subject to
random search and seizure of my home and person and random chem testing. All of which with no matters being heard except the questioning by the DA of the recommendation by my doctor who works for a federally funded clinic.
I believe it’s time that we reach those who have yet to be accountable in places that have yet to be reachable. I believe it us time to share some indignation at those who choose to interpret laws we pass compassionately and not enforce them as we intended. I believe those who sit in places above us need to recognize when authorities have usurped the responsibilty of judgement and make judges puppets speaking words of others pulling strings.
I believe it is time for all those responsible for adding to our suffering by making law abiding citizens criminals hear what we said in 1996. Stop the madness or be held accountable. Not by us. By a higher power. The one you call on when you seek relief from suffering.
I hope that a compassionate physician’s recommendation does nou place you where Mr. English and i have found ourselves.
What a waste of time and resources. 1 year and how much money wasted by both the County and this young man? He followed the current law, leave him and others following the law alone. Don’t waste MY tax dollars on such frivilous and fruitless prosecutions. I’d rather be in a room with someone who is stoned (on pot) than drunk (on alcohol). They should outlaw alcohol for all the misery it has caused!! and legalize pot. We’d have a much calmer and compassionate society if this was so.
This case was continued under our current da Ravitch. That woman is a joke. She doesn’t know what she is doing other than play favorites with her friends. If her friend was the defense attorney this would have been a different story.
Melinda Haag are you hearing This?
buy it, smoke it whatever. But I don’t smoke and I don’t think it’s fair that I have to smell my neighbors stink weed. Make them grow indoors with filters
my neighbor got beat up for his maryJ last year, he doesn’t grow it any more. i don’t know who to give kodos too
I don’t think this case is as horrible as the story just a few days ago where 12 armed FBI agents raided a 91 year old woman’s house in Southern California.
What was her crime?
She was selling plastic bags and plastic tubing that MIGHT be used for euthanasia. She belonged to a group called “Exit International” which supports a person’s right to end their own life.
Law enforcement couldn’t actually get a conviction in court, so they they just roughed her up and stole her property. They’ll toss everything out when she dies because they had no intention of actually going to court since she really was selling only what was legal in any store, anyway.
12 armed FBI agents to harass a 91 year old woman. Thats where our law enforcement has now gone. Over the edge and into that realm of imagined self importance to the point of harassment of innocent people.
It’s good to know that the SO has solved all the important crimes so they have time to arrest Cancer Patients for smoking pot!
Guess they really don’t need “Henry 1″ anymore.
Ground it, sell it & use the money to find more of these truly dangerous criminals!
So stupid to harrass a citizen like this for no reason. Idiots.
Good Judge….I wish the P D had named this judge. We the People need to know who serves us well, who indeed upholds our rights.
(This case was created under the direction of our former D A, passalacqua)