MARIJUANA DISPENSARY SCORES VICTORY IN COURT

Judge Rules Search Warrant Served on CannaHelp Invalid; D.A. to Appeal

The criminal case against the owner and managers of a Palm Desert
medical marijuana dispensary was dealt a setback Friday when a judge
invalidated the search warrant used to investigate the defendants.

Prosecutors said they will appeal the ruling.

If the ruling is not overturned, the case will likely be dismissed
for lack of evidence.

CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel and his managers, James Campbell and
John Bednar, all 31, were arrested in December 2006 and charged with
felony possession of marijuana for sale, transport and sale of
marijuana and keeping a place to sell controlled substances.

Marijuana and financial records were seized at CannaHelp, 73-359 El
Paseo, in December 2006 during a raid by the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge David B. Downing said he looked
at the facts carefully and concluded the three defendants were in
compliance with the state's Compassionate Use Act, and that they were
operating a "legitimate business."

He further concluded that the affidavit in support of the search
warrant was flawed because Robert Garcia, the sheriff's investigator
who prepared it - although familiar with drug cases - was not
adequately trained in handling medical marijuana cases.

"He made mistakes in the affidavit the problem was he didn't have a
clue about the Compassionate Use Act," Downing said.

He noted that police see people dealing drugs every day but rarely
deal with medical marijuana.

He also said Garcia wrongly asserted the dispensary had made a $1.6
million profit because the investigator admitted under
cross-examination that most of the money was used to buy more pot.

Downing, who said he fully expected prosecutors to file an appeal,
scheduled a May 5 hearing, when prosecutors are expected to announce
their next steps.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Richard Cookson said his office
disagreed with the judge's ruling and will file an appeal with the
4th District Court of Appeals in Riverside.

"The court's ruling was wrong because the judge moved out of the
motion itself," Cookson said.

He said he believed the judge should have been limited to the
affidavit itself and should not have referred to the preliminary
hearing transcript.

"We believe it was an erroneous ruling and we will be aggressively
appealing his decision," said Michael Jeandron, a spokesman for the
Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

Outside court, Hochanadel's attorney, Ulrich McNulty, said his client
was grateful for the judge's careful attention to the case and noted
the ruling made clear that law enforcement need to approach medical
marijuana cases differently.

"The sheriff's department approached this like a regular drug case
and they had no training on how to differentiate what is lawful or
unlawful," the attorney said.

The defendants contend they were running a legal medical marijuana
dispensary under Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420. Under
California law, marijuana can be sold on a not-for-profit basis to
patients with a doctor's prescription, although it is illegal under
federal law.

During December's preliminary hearing to determine if there was
enough evidence to order the defendants to stand trial, Garcia
testified that an undercover officer twice purchased medical
marijuana on the premises for what he said was a back problem.

But he also said CannaHelp tried to comply with the law and that the
dispensary refused to sell to the first undercover officer who tried
to purchase marijuana because employees could not verify his doctor's
prescription.

He also conceded the defendants never tried to hide their business
from law enforcement and it would be unfair to compare them to
street-level drug dealers.

The three defendants have been allowed to remain free on their own
recognizance on the condition they do not obtain marijuana in excess
of what the law allows.

All three men are medical marijuana cardholders with prescriptions
for the drug.

They also cannot sell the drug or provide it to patients in a
care-giving capacity.

If convicted, the three men could face as much as two years in
prison, prosecutors said.