CITY TO PAY $15,000 IN MEDICAL POT CASE

will pay $15,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a couple who claimed police
illegally confiscated their medical marijuana while investigating a burglar
alarm.

Officers Kwang Lee and Alexander Conroy wrongfully seized an unspecified
amount of medical cannabis May 27, 2000, while investigating a burglar
alarm at what was then the Shafter Avenue home of Daniel Hagen and Lynda
O'Neil, the couple said.

Hagen and O'Neil weren't home, but a neighbor watching the residence let
the officers in and told them that Hagen was permitted to use medical
marijuana, according to the couple's suit in Alameda County Superior Court.

Nevertheless, "defendants Lee and Conroy dismantled and destroyed plaintiff
Hagen's cannabis cultivation," said the suit. Criminal charges against the
couple were later dropped.

The city admitted no wrongdoing and settled the lawsuit "due to the risk of
an adverse jury verdict," Assistant City Attorney Randolph Hall wrote in
papers submitted Tuesday to the City Council.