LOCKYER CALLS KAMENA RECALL ABUSE OF SYSTEM

The state attorney general thinks supporters of a move to oust Marin
District Attorney Paula Kamena have legitimate criticisms, but he said the
recall effort is an abuse of the system.

At a meeting with the Independent Journal editorial board yesterday,
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that even if complaints are justified,
recalls should be used to remove officials who have committed misdeeds -
not to settle policy disputes.

"Family law seems to be a legitimate beef," Lockyer said. "Should you
recall a DA because of that? Absolutely not."

Lockyer said he has heard complaints over the years that justice has not
been done in family law courts in Marin.

"They were substantive and serious, and it seemed to me they needed to be
addressed," Lockyer said.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors ordered a special May 22 election to
determine whether Kamena should be ousted from office after recall
supporters gathered nearly 14,000 valid signatures supporting it.

The petition drive targeting Kamena was launched last May amid a surge of
community resentment about decisions in the Marin courts in cases involving
child custody disputes.

These cases included the prosecution by the District Attorney's Office of
Carol Mardeusz, a Novato woman who was convicted of attempting to take
custody of her own daughter in violation of a court order.

Four judges were targeted in the recall effort. But as the campaigns
against the judges fizzled, a second wave of opposition focused on Kamena,
led by critics of her office's marijuana prosecution policies.

Lynette Shaw, founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana
in Fairfax, played a key role in organizing the recall and in forming the
Legal Abuse Task Force, which represents both family-law and
medical-marijuana reform advocates.

Shaw plans to put information together for Lockyer that she said will
convince him that recall is the action to take.

"We have been locked out of the process by abusive public policy placed by
indifferent and unreachable public officials," Shaw said. "Everyone
involved in the recall, even though we come from differing sources of our
campaign, have all been abused by the legal system in Marin County."

Lockyer said he favors medicinal marijuana use but thinks the law,
established by the passage of Proposition 215, needs to be improved.

"We desperately need greater clarity and rigor added to the law," Lockyer said.

Assistant District Attorney Edward Berberian said Lockyer is right in
saying the recall is an abuse of the system.

"If you have a difference of opinion as to direction and policies, the
general election every four yours is that chance to change it," Berberian
said. He added that his office was not aware of complaints about family law
courts until the recall issue surfaced.

Regarding Kamena, Lockyer said: "I hope she will survive."