MARIJUANA ARREST CHALLENGED

Man Suspected Of Cultivating Pot Plants Vows He'll Fight Back

Disabled trucker and medical marijuana user James Hall is promising a fight
against Redding police, who confiscated his crop, food stamps and pictures
and arrested him Sunday after searching his house without a warrant.

"They've got themselves a battle," Hall said Tuesday, less than 24 hours
after a call from his attorney, Eric Berg of Redding, toShasta County
Assistant District Attorney Greg Gaul resulted in his release from jail
without bail.

Hall had been jailed in lieu of $10,000 bail since his arrest on suspicion
of cultivating marijuana.

Police said that they had arrested Hall, 40, after a probation search of
the Tidmore Lane home where he lives with his mother yielded 20 potted
marijuana plants in his back yard.

Though police said Hall was arrested on suspicion of a probation violation
and a marijuana cultivation allegation, a Shasta County Jail spokesman said
Hall was booked only on suspicion of the cultivation charge.

Hall and his mother, Lydia, 63, were convicted of conspiracy to cultivate
marijuana in February 2000, but their sentences were stayed and their
probation was inactivated pending an appeal of that conviction.

The same jury acquitted the two of marijuana cultivation and James Hall
also was acquitted of possession of marijuana for sale. Their defense was
based on Proposition 215, the 1996 law that allows patients with doctors'
recommendations to grow and use marijuana.

Hall suffered severe back injuries in a 1993 on-the-job accident and his
mother used marijuana for glaucoma symptoms. Both had doctors'
recommendations for pot.

Both James and Lydia Hall said they repeatedly told police Sunday night
that they are not on probation.

"I told them to get out of my house," Lydia Hall said Monday. "We did not
give permission to search."

Lydia Hall said "a bunch" of police officers searched the house and that
five or six patrol cars were parked outside.

"It got kind of wild," she said. "They walked in my room; I was in my
nightshirt. I said, 'Is this really necessary, especially since I'm not on
probation.' and he (an officer) said, 'Maybe you don't want to be, but you
are.' "
She said officers threatened to handcuff her as they later did her son.

James Hall said he answered the door after 9 p.m. Sunday and faced several
police officers.

The officers told him that a neighbor had reported pot plants at the house
and asked if he were James Hall.

"I said, 'Yes, sir, I am, and as you know, I have a prescription' " for
medical marijuana use, James Hall said.

Hall said the officers asked to see his doctor's written recommendation and
he asked them to wait at the door while he went to get it.

"By the time I got back to the living room the house was full of cops," he
said. "They had no warrant. They said it was a probation search."

James Hall said he continued to argue that he is not on probation while
officers searched. He said they removed the 20 plants outside and also took
food stamps and some "very personal pictures" of a girlfriend from his room.

He also contends that the officers took the personal pictures door to door,
asking his neighbors if they recognized the woman in the pictures.

Redding police did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday, but Assistant
District Attorney Gaul said police reports of the incident indicate that
Hall consented to the search, which would have made it legal.

Meanwhile, the Shasta Patients' Alliance released a statement saying that
the search was "an example of the continued medical marijuana patient
harassment that is rampant in Shasta County."

The alliance was formed to advocate medical marijuana users' rights under
Proposition 215.

A class action suit filed by several alliance members last year names
Shasta County District Attorney McGregor Scott, Sheriff Jim Pope and some
of his deputies. The suit contends that Scott, Pope and the others are
breaking the law and wasting taxpayer money when they arrest and prosecute
medical pot users.

Hall said his arrest was only his most recent contact with police, who came
to his home and searched, with his permission, about three months ago after
an anonymous tipster reportedly told police he was selling marijuana.

"I'm the only one not on that suit," James Hall said. "I figured I don't
need the grief -- let it slide.

"Now I'm not going to.

"I'm a nobody. I'm not out there selling drugs. I don't have parties. I
keep my stuff in my bedroom. . . . It's medicine and I keep it put away.

"My big question is, who's next." he asked. "I have children and it upsets
them very much to have them come in like the Gestapo."

Gaul said the case will be reviewed "just like any other case" and he hopes
to decide by Friday whether Hall will be prosecuted.

Reporter Maline Hazle can be reached at 225-8266 or at mhazle@redding.com.

Wednesday, July 4, 2001