EL DORADO COUPLE SEIZED IN POT CASE

Anticipated Indictment Follows A 01 Raid By Federal Agents.

An El Dorado County physician and her attorney husband have been indicted
by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on charges of conspiring to
distribute and manufacture marijuana and manufacturing at least 100
marijuana plants. Marion P. "Mollie" Fry, 49, and Dale C. Schafer, 51, were
arrested Wednesday morning by federal drug agents without incident at their
home in Greenwood. The arrests triggered the unsealing of the June 15
indictment.

The couple were brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski on
Wednesday afternoon. They pleaded not guilty through attorney Laurence
Jeffrey Lichter and were ordered released on a $25,000 unsecured bond for
each of them.

The indictment had long been anticipated.

In September 2001, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided
the couple's Medical Research Center in Cool, their Greenwood home and a
storage unit in Cool. The agents filled a rented truck with seized computer
and hard copy files.

According to 2001 court documents filed in connection with the couple's
challenge to the raid, the Medical Research Center was nothing more than a
front for their distribution operation.

"It cannot be any more clear," U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Wednesday.
"The sale and distribution of marijuana are violations of federal law.
There are no exceptions.

"The United States Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal ban on
marijuana four years ago in its Oakland Cannabis Club decision and
reaffirmed federal jurisdiction ... two weeks ago."

DEA Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Gordon Taylor added: "We will not
turn a blind eye to serious and flagrant disregard of federal law."

The indictment says the couple's manufacturing and distribution conspiracy
continued from Aug. 1, 1999, to the day of the raid, Sept. 28, 2001.

A second count places the couple's manufacture of marijuana within the same
time frame.

Each count carries a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years.

According to court documents, prior to the raid an undercover agent
telephoned the couple's business in Cool and asked if Schafer could
represent him in a car accident case. The agent was informed that "Mr.
Schafer only does medical marijuana and refers all other matters to an
attorney in Placerville," according to the documents.

The documents also reflect that an informant who was trading information
for leniency in his own case told a DEA agent that, during the time the
informant was employed by Fry and Schafer, they supplied certificates for
clients who sought to justify marijuana possession under California's
Compassionate Use Act, a 1996 ballot measure permitting people to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes when recommended by a physician.