KAMENA LAUNCHES FIGHT AGAINST RECALL

Once a year, Paula Kamena teaches a class for San Rafael's business20
leaders. She's dubbed it "Damned if you do, damned if you don't," which20
might well describe the first-term district attorney as she faces recall in
20 a special election May 22.

The target of vilification on two fronts, Kamena, a former juvenile hall20
counselor who attended law school at night before joining the Marin D.A.'s
20 Office as a prosecutor, has been in office two years.

In "Damned if you do," taught with one of her felony deputies, the business
20 people are presented with a series of circumstances, then given the
law.20 Apply the law, she tells them. It's easier said than done.

Kamena now finds herself in the unenviable position of being targeted by20
Marin's medical marijuana proponents, who took up the mantle of an earlier
20 group outraged over the prosecution of a mother and alleged excesses
in20 Marin's Family Law court- opponents Kamena calls "small-minded
disgruntled 20 litigants who had their day in court and lost."

The thrust of her campaign is basic: "I'm doing a good job, I'm serving20
this community well and I firmly believe I deserve to stay in office. The20
recall is an abuse of the process and people should vote no because I'm20
doing a good job. They should retain me."

The effort to oust her "is not about medical marijuana, it's about the20
abuse of the process. The whole goal is to get an elected official to bend
20 to their small-minded agenda," Kamena says.

But Lynnette Shaw, who heads the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana and20
organized the recall petition drive, says her organization enjoyed the20
support of Kamena when she was assistant D.A.-and both endorsed her and20
campaigned for her in her June 1998 bid for the top job.

Back in 1992, Shaw co-sponsored the Marin Medical Marijuana Ordinance,20
which made possession and use of pot by those deemed in medical need a very
20 low priority for law enforcement officers. Her organization works with20
patients, obtains letters from their physicians, issues identity cards to20
medical users and keeps their medical files.

She and her group have boycotted the compassionate user registry sponsored
20 by Supervisor Steve Kinsey under the auspices of the county Department
of20 Health and Human Services.

In those instances when members were arrested, Shaw said, the probation20
department typically would make a phone call to her and that would be the20
end of it.

All that changed once Kamena was elected, Shaw says. Nine months after20
being sworn in, Kamena issued her office's guidelines on medical marijuana
20 cases. First on the list was a reminder of one very real fact of life:
that 20 federal law prohibits cultivation and possession of marijuana. In
the20 federal courts, there is no such thing as medical use of the drug.

Kamena said she supports the legitimate medical use of marijuana. But, like
20 California's 57 other district attorneys, she's faced with handling20
prosecutions under a state law that is murky at best.

Prop. 215 doesn't address how much marijuana a sick person can possess,20
among other omissions.

Kamena said her review of police reports filed in Marin from January 199820
to December 2000 revealed only 73 people claimed medical use of marijuana20
as a legal defense. Of those, she said, 37 cases were dismissed once proper
20 proof was established. Of the remaining 36, 26 pleaded guilty and
one-in20 which 178 pot plants were at issue, along with a history that
included drug 20 sales-went to trial.

The other 10 remain in the system, she says.

Shaw, who calls the D.A.'s guidelines "horrendous and a declaration of war
20 on Prop 215 and medical marijuana," says those numbers are misleading.

"The 73 cases doesn't count the at least 300 individuals hurt and scaled,20
who had their places turned over, who were subjected to verbal abuse," by20
police.

Just as serious to Shaw is that the marijuana is confiscated.

Kamena's office may not prosecute, Shaw said, "But under her guidelines,20
you never get to keep your stuff. This has been going on a year and a half.
20 There have been hundreds of illegal confiscations."

In Shaw's view, there were sufficient grievances demanding redress.

"What recourse did we have?"

When she read about the prosecution of Carol Mardeuz, a Novato mother who20
had lied to the court in an attempt to gain custody of her child, "and20
about the uneven, double-standard of prosecutions in family court," she20
decided to take advantage of the petition drive already mounted by the20
family court opponents.

The second-hand petition doesn't didn't mention medical marijuana, another
20 circumstance that rankles Kamena.

So far, she's the first district attorney in the state to face recall over
20 pot enforcement, although there are rumblings that Sonoma County's
D.A.,20 Michael Mullins, may be targeted.

Kamena's first riposte came last Wednesday, when she held a lunchtime press
20 conference at the Four Points Sheraton.

She was flanked by supporters, who include county schools Superintendent20
Mary Jane Burke, Sheriff Robert Doyle, both of Novato, San Rafael20
businesswoman Patricia Garbarino, president of the county's biggest and20
most successful recycling facility, and virtually every other elected and20
appointed official in Marin County.

She's running on her record, which includes a 97-percent conviction rate in
20 Superior Court, creation of the Jeannette Prandi Children's Center for20
child sexual assault victims, creation of a High-Tech Task Force aimed at20
combatting computer crime and identity theft and a Bad Check Restitution20
Program.

Under Kamena, the D.A.'s Office has been working with mental health20
officials to reduce recidivism among the mentally ill. And in a public20
safety blitz announced at Vista Point she's working with the bike community
20 and drivers to put an end to road rage.

Fighting the recall, Kamena says, has taken its toll on her personal life.

"We've already gotten the endorsement of every single police association,20
from the attorney general," and just about everyone else. But because she20
can't conduct her campaign on county time or the county's nickel, it's20
meant spending hours on the phone at home.

The $500,000 or so being spent on the May 22 election also galls her.

"I fight for every penny in my budget, and that money would fund the20
Jeannette Prandi Children's center for six or seven years."

Kamena felt a great deal of heat last year over her prosecution of Novato20
pediatrician William Liebman, who was accused by an employee of doctoring20
stores of children's vaccines.

"We had evidence that led us to believe the children being treated by Dr.20
Liebman were not being properly treated and vaccinated," Kamena said.

Liebman's defenders, however, still number almost in the legions. A fair20
number put their objections in writing with letters to Kamena.

"I'm used to people being interested in what happens in this office and20
people commenting. I feel that once they get acquainted with the integrity
20 here that most of their questions are answered. Any person who is
concerned 20 about something can voice (an opinion) and let us explain why
we did what20 we did. I think most citizens recognize that elected
officials make20 everyday decisions. It's not necessarily a popular job.
And if you20 disagree, is it malfeasance, is it doing something that's such
an affront20 to this community that you should not continue in office?"

At a state conference of district attorneys-held the same day Marin20
supervisors certified her election-Kamena said she felt like a pariah, a20
thought she expressed to another Bay Area D.A.

"He said, No, we believe that you are the state martyr.' I feel like a20
cross between the two."