JUDGE FEARS POT RULING ILLEGAL

SAN ANDREAS -- Two Wallace ministers sentenced to probation for
marijuana possession and given the green light to grow marijuana for
medicinal purposes must return to court next week because a Calaveras
County Superior Court judge fears the probation terms he approved are
illegal.

Ricky Dewayne Garner, 43, and Sue Melinda Garner, 40, pleaded guilty
Monday to a misdemeanor charge of possessing more than an ounce of
marijuana as part of a plea bargain endorsed by Judge Douglas
Mewhinney.

But it's possible those pleas could be withdrawn and the matter set
for trial again, depending on the outcome of a hearing set for a week
from today.

Mewhinney essentially believes he could be aiding and abetting a
federal felony by approving the probation terms that would allow the
Garners to grow marijuana for themselves and those in their care.

In exchange for pleading guilty to the misdemeanor
marijuana-possession charges, the Garners, ministers of the Northern
Lights Church, were placed on two years' court probation and agreed
to give up their right to be free of searches.

They also agreed to abide by medical-marijuana guidelines the county
Board of Supervisors adopted last year to help law enforcement,
county agencies and individuals implement Proposition 215. Those
guidelines allow for six marijuana plants and 2 pounds for each
person who has a doctor's recommendation for medicinal marijuana use.

Proposition 215, approved by state voters in 1996, allows people
suffering from certain medical conditions to use marijuana with a
doctor's recommendation. It also states that marijuana possession and
cultivation laws do not apply to a legitimate medical-marijuana
patient or the patient's primary caregiver.

A primary caregiver is a person who has consistently assumed
responsibility for a medical-marijuana patient's housing, health or
safety.

The Garners were charged with felony marijuana cultivation after law
enforcement agents raided their property last year and found 290
marijuana plants.

The Garners claimed they were growing marijuana for themselves and
more than a dozen other members of their congregation, all of whom
had doctors' recommendations.

The two were ordered to stand trial on the felony charges and the
trial was scheduled to start Wednesday. But they agreed to the terms
of a plea bargain Monday and Mewhinney pronounced their sentences the
same day.

But Mewhinney called the Garners' attorneys and Seth Matthews, a
deputy district attorney, on Tuesday and conducted a conference call,
during which he outlined his concerns. Those concerns largely stemmed
from the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, by distributing medicinal marijuana, was
not exempt from prosecution under federal drug laws.