The Judicial Lynching Of
Marvin Chavez Continues –Two Reports
(Ed. note: The only good thing about the judge
in this case is that his behavior will make filing an appeal very easy.)
See Herrick
Sentenced to Four Years For Selling Medical Marijuana; Chavez Pretrial Hearing Next
and
Orange County
Attorney Defending Marvin Chavez Showing Gratitude For Help To Son-in-Law Who Died Of
Cancer
and
David Herrick
Denied Proposition 215 & Medical Necessity As Defense, Mocked By Judge; Orange County
Rally From an Orange County Activist:
July 26, 1998
Marvin Chavez, Director of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op, was in court Friday, July
24, for his last preliminary hearing before his trial begins for giving away medicinal
marijuana to patients. Chavez is a medical marijuana patient who suffers from Ankylosing
Spondylitis, a form of degenerative spinal arthritis. Chavez was recently released on bail
after fundraising efforts by Co-op members.
See
Orange County Cannabis
Co-op Founder Denied Use of Body-Neck Brace In Jail ("It could be used as a
weapon!")
Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald had two-thirds of the courtroom seats
sealed off, leaving only about 15 seats open for supporters and people involved with the
26 other cases he was hearing that day. Another row of seats was opened after people
jammed the aisle and doorway trying to get in.
After reducing the crime of a man who dragged another man on the hood of his car
until he fell off at a freeway onramp with broken bones and a cracked head to a
misdemeanor, and giving him just sixty days in jail and three years probation, he heard
Marvin Chavez’s case. Chavez is facing twelve years in jail.
Fitzgerald made a barrage of insulting comments aimed at Chavez and disabled supporters
observing the case throughout the morning. Looking at the observers, he stated, "I
got some Thai sticks in the back if anybody wants them." After no one responded, he
said, "No one has a sense of humor in here."
When he called up Chavez’s case, Fitzgerald said, "OK. Let’s bring up
the dope case." A few minutes later, he stated, "I have some green leafy
material." When inquiring as to which defendant named Chavez this case was for, he
snidely remarked, "I almost sent you to prison for life, Mr. Chavez."
DA Carl Armbrust argued against allowing a Proposition 215 defense, saying that because
members made donations to the Co-op, the marijuana that Chavez gave away was
"sales." Fitzgerald granted Armbrust’s motion, blatantly ignoring that
Judge Bryer in People v. Peron in San Francisco said, "Although the sale and
distribution of marijuana remain as criminal offenses under section 11360, bona fide primary caregivers for section 11362.5 patients should not be
precluded from receiving bona fide reimbursement for their actual expenses ..."
Armbrust made the outrageously inflated assertion that the struggling Co-op was taking
in $2,000 -- $10,000 a week. Fitzgerald, in another assault on suffering patients, said,
"It looks like we’re in the wrong business, Mr. Armbrust ... The only thing that
keeps me from thinking that is people like you and me."
Armbrust also argued to allow the patients’ medical records, which are currently
sealed in the custody of the court, to be used as evidence. Fitzgerald gave Chavez’s
attorneys, Robert Kennedy and Jon Alexander, 72 hours to present papers opposing this
before he makes his final decision on releasing the records.
See Prosecutors
Seek Medical Records of Hundreds Of Members of Orange County Cannabis Co-op
Fitzgerald voiced his bias against medical marijuana and
Marvin Chavez throughout the hearing. After Fitzgerald ruled in favor of Armbrust’s
requests, he said, "Do we want to talk settlement or do we want to send Mr. Chavez
off to prison?"
Attorneys Kennedy and Alexander plan to file an appeal with the Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals next week.
Chavez’s trial and jury selection are set to begin on August 3 at the Orange
County Central Courthouse, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Division 39, 10th
floor, 8:30 am, in Santa Ana.
Please show up to protest in front of the courthouse before the August 3 hearing.
M.
July 17, 1998
From the OC Weekly
Orange County, California
webmaster@ocweekly.com
http://www.ocweekly.com/
By Nick Schou
TAKE THIS PLANT AND SHOVE IT
OC continues war on legal pot
Martyrs don’t come much more sympathetic—or willing to suffer—than
Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group. He’s
already been busted twice this year for putting marijuana into the hands of seriously ill
people—including cancer and AIDS patients— whose doctors prescribed the drug as
medicine. According to a majority of California voters (who passed Proposition 215 in
November 1996), that should be legal.
But in Orange County, it’s still illegal. And even though prosecutors understand
that Chavez isn’t your run-of-the-mill street dealer, they’re determined to
treat him just as harshly. Three weeks ago, pretrial arguments started in Chavez’s
upcoming criminal trial at the Orange County Superior Court on 10 felony counts of
marijuana distribution. If convicted, Chavez, who claims he was
entrapped by undercover police with phony pot prescriptions, will face several years in
state prison.
See
Orange County
Club Leaders Arrested For Giving Away Marijuana To A Nark Who Lied And "Made A
Contribution"
Chavez was first arrested in January on seven counts of felony marijuana distribution, all
of them carried out through his Santa Ana-based organization. He pleaded no contest and
was released on his own recognizance with a warning from the judge to avoid further
marijuana transactions.
But Chavez, who smokes marijuana to treat a degenerative spinal condition, ignored the
warning, citing humanitarian reasons. One of his members, he pointed out, had just died
from cancer, and others—like AIDS patient Ron Hobson, who was profiled in the Weekly
in February—depend on the drug to keep up their appetite and weight.
So, just weeks after Chavez’s release, two undercover agents
posing as a sick Californian and his caregiver set up Chavez with a phony doctor’s
note. Once Chavez filled the bogus prescription by providing the detectives with two bags
of weed, they busted him. Prosecutors have also charged Chavez with mailing a bag of
marijuana to a member in Chico.
Because of his previous drug charges, the three new charges carry enhancements that
guarantee stiffer sentencing should Chavez be convicted.
Interviewed after his pretrial hearing on Friday, Chavez seemed remarkably upbeat.
"My strength is still there, and I’m confident that I will win," he told
the Weekly. "But it’s a shame we have to go through all this just to protect our
freedom and our rights."
Chavez seemed more worried about how to survive the financial toll his trial has
already brought. "We’re $9,000 or $10,000 in the hole for legal costs right
now," he explained.
Kennedy also told the Weekly that he plans to call California Attorney General Dan
Lungren, Orange County DA Mike Capizzi, and DA prosecutor Carl Armbrust as defense
witnesses in the upcoming trial. "The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 [made law by
Prop. 215] states that federal and state governments are encouraged to implement a plan
for the safe and affordable distribution of medical marijuana," Kennedy explained.
"That’s been the law since 1996. I want to know what Lungren, Capizzi and
Armbrust have done to comply with that law."
"Neither the federal nor the state government is complying
with that," responded Armbrust. "The law says we are encouraged to comply, but
it doesn’t say we have to."
See
Most Governments In
California Have Flunked The Test Of Implementation Of Prop 215 – Orange County
Register
and
The Libertarian
Orange County Register Editorializes Against Lungren’s Attacks On Medical Marijuana
And Prop 215
Armbrust said that, in his opinion, "safe and affordable" distribution of
medical marijuana is already provided for by the section of the Compassionate Use Act that
allows patients or caregivers to grow their own marijuana plants. "We’re not
prosecuting anyone for growing their own plants or for possession if they have
doctors’ notes," explained Armbrust.
To prove his point, Armbrust cited Chavez’s arrest at his Garden Grove home three
months ago. While making the bust, Garden Grove police discovered several marijuana plants
growing in the back yard. Police telephoned Armbrust to ask for guidance, and, Armbrust
said, he told the cops "not to remove those plants. So they left them there."
"We don’t go after anybody unless they are selling marijuana, transporting
it, or possessing large quantities with the intent to sell," Armbrust said. "But
that doesn’t mean that Marvin Chavez can hide behind this law."
Yet on June 27, only days after Chavez was released from jail, a
Lake Forest member of Chavez’s organization made a late-night 911 call to police when
a houseguest refused to leave and attacked him. Ed Kamfield told the Weekly that police
officers arrived at his home, but instead of arresting the assailant, they discovered
about 20 marijuana plants and called for backup. Kamfield, who has donated marijuana
plants to Chavez in the past, assured the Weekly that he is a sick Californian covered by
Prop. 215. Kamfield said police confiscated his doctor’s notes and cited him for
possession of the pot plants. As police handcuffed him, Kamfield protested, insisting that
his homegrown-marijuana supply was legal under Prop. 215.
"Not according to [Orange County’s Sheriff] Brad Gates, it isn’t,"
the cops allegedly answered before promptly hauling the bruised and bloody Kamfield to
jail.
To help Chavez pay off his $100,000 bail, send donations to the Orange County
Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group, P.O. Box 6826, Santa Ana, CA 92706. Checks should be
made out to "OCPDNSG."
Supported