D.A. WANTS KUBBY TO FACE FELONY ALLEGATIONS

AUBURN - The California Attorney General's Office plans to appeal a
Placer County Superior Court judge's decision to reduce medical
marijuana advocate Steve Kubby's convictions on psilocybin and peyote
possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors.

Kubby, 54, was sentenced in March to 120 days in jail. He is scheduled
to start serving the term July 20. Marijuana-possession-for-sale charges
were dismissed after a mistrial was declared and the District Attorney's
Office chose not to proceed with a second trial.

California Department of Justice spokesman Michael Van Winkle said the
county District Attorney's Office's request for state prosecutors to
appeal the decision by Judge John Cosgrove has been approved "on a
preliminary basis" with no filing date yet set in appeals court. The
next step for the Attorney General's Office is to file a brief, Van
Winkle said.

A former Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate, Kubby said the 265
pot plants found in his home were for medicinal use under Proposition
215.

Kubby's public defender Julie Mumma said she has requested all
transcripts of the three-month trial in anticipation of the appeal. An
appeal would allow the defense to challenge the legality of the initial
search at Kubby's Olympic Valley home, she said.

"We are prepared to litigate this matter all the way, paid in full by
Placer County," Mumma said in a news release from the American Medical
Marijuana Association. Mumma couldn't be reached for comment.

Kubby said the appeal allows the defense to receive "thousands of
dollars of transcripts for free that we would have otherwise had to pay
for.

"We are anxious to post the entire trial transcript to the Net, so other
patients can use our tactics and motions," he said.