Bay Area Reporter

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By Mark Mardon

LUNGREN DENIES PRESSURING LANDLORD TO EVICT POT CLUB

Cops Allegedly Sent to Coerce Eviction; Club Remains Open

Having failed to obtain a court order permanently shutting down the medical marijuana facility now known as the Cannabis Healing Center, California Attorney General Dan Lungren reportedly has tried a new hard-ball tactic: pressuring the elderly landlord of the pot club’s building to evict his tenants.

According to club founder Dennis Peron, who has stepped down from running the operation to devote himself full time to running for governor, Lungren recently sent 10 state narcotics police and lawyers from his office to the home of 94-year-old Victor Zachariah, who owns the building at 1444 Market Street where the healing center has been located since 1995, "and coerced him to sign a statement saying he didn’t want me in the building. They threatened him, saying they’d take the building."

In the note, according to Peron, Zachariah wrote that "I didn’t know he [Peron] was selling illegal drugs there [at the Cannabis Healing Center] and I ordered him to vacate the property."

When contacted by telephone on Monday, Zachariah (whose number was obtained from the phone book after center volunteers declined to give it out) confirmed he had written a note saying he no longer wanted the Cannabis Healing Center as a tenant. When asked whether anyone had asked him to write the note, Zachariah declined to say, replying curtly that "that’s my business."

A spokesman for the Attorney General, who claimed to be very familiar with the state’s proceedings against the pot club, denied his boss had sent any agents to Zachariah’s home.

"If we have to move, we’ll move," said Peron. He added, however, that "when you sign a thing under duress, when it comes out in court, the judge is not going to like it. A jury wouldn’t like knowing the cops threatened him [Zachariah] with forfeiture."

Peron said that on a personal level, he and "Mr. Zach" (as he calls his landlord) get along very well. "He really likes me," Peron said.

No restraint

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, April 29, Superior Court Judge William Cahill denied a renewed request by Lungren for a new temporary restraining order against Hazel Rodgers and the Cannabis Healing Center she now runs (having assumed leadership after Peron stepped down on April 20).

Cahill ruled that newspaper articles submitted as evidence of the illegal activities within the building constitute only "inadmissible hearsay."

"There is insufficient evidence as to what is occurring inside the Center for this court to issue an order closing the Center without a full preliminary injunction hearing," Cahill wrote in his decision.

The judge ordered such a hearing to take place on June 4, at which time Rodgers, who is 79, will be expected "to show cause, if any, why you, your agents, employees and others should not be restrained and prohibited from conducting, maintaining, occupying or in any way permitting the use of the premises at 1444 Market Street, San Francisco, for the purpose of selling, storing, serving, distributing, keeping, or giving away controlled substances."

"We’re happy to do that," said Geo, one of the center’s volunteers. She explained that the area is now patrolled by people with walkie-talkies who ensure the club stays in compliance with the order. She then noted the center’s new summer hours are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday;