KAMENA RECALL SUPPORTERS GATHER NEAR CIVIC CENTER

Their featured speaker couldn't make it, but that didn't stop a rally near
the Civic Center yesterday by about 20 supporters of the campaign to recall
Marin District Attorney Paula Kamena.

The rally took the place of a press conference that was canceled after it
became apparent the featured speaker, Erin Brockovich, couldn't attend.

Brockovich - who inspired the film of the same name starring Julia Roberts
- - helped uncover pollution by Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s Hinkley gas
compressor station.

Recall supporters carrying placards circled a fountain in a pedestrian
island that runs alongside the Civic Center, where Kamena works.

Several hoisted brooms and waved signs that read: "Sweep Courts Clear of
Corruption." One sign bore a drawing of a rat with the district attorney's
name attached. Still other signs were posted later in the day on a central
San Rafael freeway overpass.

"Look, they're whitewashing the Civic Center," said Peter Romanowsky of
Sausalito, pointing to the building, which is being painted. Romanowsky is
one of the leaders of the recall. The effort was launched by a group angry
over child-custody decisions in the Marin courts.

The controversy began with family law court Judge Michael Dufficy, and
quickly blossomed to include judges Lynn Duryee, Terrence Boren, Verna
Adams and Kamena.

The effort to recall Dufficy, Duryee and Boren fizzled. The deadline to
submit signatures in the effort to recall Adams is March 8.

But Kamena faces a May 22 special recall election largely due to the
efforts of Lynnette Shaw, founding director of the Marin Alliance for
Medical Marijuana in Fairfax.

Shaw spearheaded the call for Kamena's removal - as much for Kamena's
enforcement of marijuana laws as her role in family law cases, which
included the conviction of Carol Mardeusz, a Novato woman prosecuted by
Kamena for perjury and attempting to abduct her own daughter.

Kamena wants to know where the money came from to pay people who collected
13,942 valid signatures. Shaw has said the law allows her to withhold the
information, although the state's Fair Political Practices Commission
disagrees.

Shaw did not attend yesterday's rally and could not be reached for comment.