Note: This is the second of a series by investigative reporter Michael
Pulley. Cited: "Search Unwarranted"
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n094/a04.html

FIGHTING BACK GRAND JURY INVESTIGATIONS, MORE SUITS IN THE WORKS IN PLACER
DRUG CASES

The Placer County Sheriff's Department's controversial marijuana raids on
more than 50 residences throughout Sacramento and Placer counties may soon
become an issue before a Placer County Grand Jury.

Individuals targeted by the raids said they plan to file formal complaints
as soon as a month from now alleging wrongdoing by Placer's narcotics
deputies involved in a two-year drug sting aimed at busting indoor pot
gardens that used hydroponics.

"We're going to get everybody-even where there's the smallest bit of
corruption involved-to file a formal complaint with the Placer County Grand
Jury," said Michael Baldwin, one of about seven medical marijuana patients
who were arrested in the sting. "We might even file complaints with the
Sacramento County Grand Jury."

A six-month SN&R investigation (Search Unwarranted -Jan. 20) of more than
70 drug cases revealed that the Placer County Sheriff's Department's
Special Operations Unit finds itself caught in the crossfire of an emerging
legal battle. At the heart of the controversy is Sheriff's Department
narcotics detectives Tracy Grant and Ronald L. Goodpaster. In multiple
claims and lawsuits filed in recent months, both deputies have been accused
of committing perjury on sworn affidavits and violating the civil rights of
individuals living in Placer and Sacramento counties.

In interviews and court records, the two detectives were accused of lying
about the existence of marijuana they claim to have seized from trash cans
as evidence and making false claims about residents' electrical power
usage. In two instances, Grant said under oath that he observed cars parked
in driveways. But SN&R's investigation revealed that the cars were not
there at the time Grant said he saw them. The two detectives' statements on
affidavits about trash searches, power records and vehicles are significant
because they established the probable cause that was used to obtain search
warrants and convictions in dozens of marijuana cases in the last two years.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department would not allow its two deputies to
be interviewed by SN&R. Placer County Sheriff Edward Bonner said he
couldn't comment for SN&R's story since it was about "medical marijuana."
Bonner said he has decided not to comment on stories about medical
marijuana until after the trial of Steve Kubby, a high-profile medical
marijuana patient who has used pot for more than a decade to treat his
terminal cancer. Kubby, the Libertarian party's gubernatorial candidate in
1998, and his wife, Michele, were arrested by Placer deputies a year ago
and charged with felony possession and cultivation of marijuana. The Kubbys
are leading proponents of California's Proposition 215, the initiative that
legalized the cultivation of use of marijuana by patients who receive
recommendations from physicians. The Kubbys are fighting the Placer County
charges against them and say their marijuana was strictly grown and used as
medicine under the terms of Prop 215.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department's activities included more than 30
raids within the last two years on homes throughout the city and county of
Sacramento. It's not clear why Placer's drug team, known in court records
as the Special Operations Unit, was targeting so many residences within the
jurisdiction of the city and county.

But numerous defendants arrested by Placer County's special drug unit told
the SN&R they believe they were targeted because they shopped at Green
Fire, a Sacramento gardening supply store that specializes in hydroponics
and organics. In at least 14 of the raids in Sacramento and Placer, Placer
detectives confiscated as evidence Green Fire catalogs and Green Fire store
receipts found at the homes of defendants, court records show. In at least
four cases, the Placer Drug team came up short, sometimes finding
misdemeanor amounts of marijuana, but no evidence of marijuana cultivation.
In one of the mistaken drug raids, Sheriff Bonner personally apologized to
Lyman "Sandy" Sanborn, a life-long Republican Party activist and childhood
acquaintance of former President Ronald Reagan. Sanborn's residence was
mistakenly raided by the Placer drug unit last July 1. Sanborn's grown son,
Scott, who lives with his elderly parents, had made a shopping trip to
Green Fire just a few weeks before the raid.

When contacted about the link between Green Fire and the Placer raids,
Jeanne Shelsky, Green Fire's owner, told SN&R: "We have a store that tries
to help people that garden. We have no involvement in anything illegal, and
we are appalled at the thought that law enforcement would target anyone
just because they came to a garden store."

But while many of those targeted by the Placer raids have blasted the
Placer County Sheriff's Department's detectives, at least one Sacramento
official praised the drug-busting work they do within the jurisdiction of
Sacramento County.

"They do a good job and have had some very significant grow cases, and,
basically, we appreciate the help they provide," said Dale Kitching,
supervising deputy district attorney of the Sacramento County District
Attorney's major narcotics unit. "Those are cases that we might not
otherwise learn about or have the time to pursue."

Kitching personally signed off on many of the search warrants written by
Tracy Grant and served on Sacramento residents. Kitching said he was not
aware of the lawsuits and claims accusing the detective of perjury and
violation of civil rights. "I certainly hadn't had nay occasion to doubt
their credibility," Kitching said, about the two detectives.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department also was aware of Placer's
extensive raids in Sacramento County, said Sgt. Bob Risedorph, head of the
major investigations bureau within the Sacramento County Sheriff's
Department's Narcotics/Gang Division. "We have a broad array of drug
problems," said Risedorph. "Unfortunately, sometimes the marijuana problems
kind of get deprioritized because of the methamphetamine, cocaine and
heroin problems."

Risedorph would not respond to allegations that Placer's sting was aimed at
customers of Green Fire. "I'm really not going to go into specifics about
what I know and didn't know about their surveillances," he said.

"If you're a peace officer here, you're peace officer powers are good
throughout the state of California," said Rick Gibson, spokesman for the
the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. "They don't have to tell us
they're coming into the county here. They keep these investigations private
from ours. You've got to keep those investigations shielded. If an
investigation leads you to another jurisdiction, it would be proper to
notify that agency that you will be there on a certain date serving a
search warrant. That's just so if we get 911 calls coming in, it notifies
our communications bureau that some type of police action is occurring."

Other law enforcement officials defended Placer County's activities. "When
the people from these organizations that are trying to legalize marijuana
claim law enforcement is unethical in dealing with medical marijuana
patients, they're wrong," said Christy McCampbell, the acting assistant
chief of the state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
"I'd ask them to prove that fact."

SN&R's ongoing investigation has learned that at least one federal
narcotics agent assisted Placer County deputies in their sting on
Sacramento residents. Richard Adams, an agent with the Internal Revenue
Service's Criminal Investigations Division, confirmed that he used federal
subpoena powers to obtain electrical power records of those targeted in the
raid from the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. Placer detectives
used those power records as evidence that suspects were operating
energy-consuming pot gardens within homes. That evidence was used to
establish probable cause on search warrants. Adams told SN&R that he
typically works with Placer detectives as part of his involvement on
narcotics task forces involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

A DEA spokeswoman said the federal drug-fighting agency may have assisted
Placer detectives in their raids, but that assistance was not part of any
formal task force. "There was no formal task force," said Jocelyn
Favors-Barnes. "We may have assisted as a multi-agency case."

In the meantime, numerous defendants targeted by Placer's raids are
fighting back with plans for civil litigation against Placer County and its
detectives and the plans for filing formal complaints with the Placer
County Grand Jury.

"If the Grand Jury fails to act, then we will got to (state Attorney
General) Bill Lockyer's office," said Baldwin. "If Lockyer fails, then
we're going to a federal prosecutor."

Baldwin himself is still facing prosecution by the Placer County District
Attorney Brad Fenochio. Baldwin, a dentist who formerly practiced in
Rocklin, and his wife, Georgia Chacko, were arrested by the Placer Special
Operations Unit in late 1998. The couple had recommendations for use of
marijuana as medicine from Dr. Alex Stalcup, a prominent Concord physician
who is considered by law enforcement officials to be one of the state's
leading authorities on illegal drugs. When charges that the Baldwin couple
were guilty of felony cultivation and possession of marijuana came before
the Placer County Superior Court last year, a jury split 6-6 on charges
that Baldwin was guilty, and it deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquitting his
wife. The Placer County District Attorney's office has said it plans to
retry the case later this year.

Placer's narcotics detectives "are breaking down the foundation of our
entire nation-the Constitution-just so they can get little notches in their
guns," said Baldwin. They first started out trying to nail the so-called
potheads, but now it's spilling over into everybody. Everybody's rights are
now threatened by the Placer County Sheriff's Department. The sick thing is
that the judges and the district attorneys are backing it up in the name of
the war on
drugs."