CONVICTION IN FEDERAL POT TRIAL

The Jurors Reach A Verdict After Being Told To Ignore All Medical-Use
Evidence And Argument.

Bryan James Epis, who says he smoked marijuana for chronic pain and wanted
to grow it for others who were sick, was found guilty Thursday by a jury in
Sacramento federal court of conspiracy and manufacturing the drug.

He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison on the jury's finding
that he conspired to eventually boost his crop to at least 1,000 plants.
The panel also found that he grew at least 100 plants in the spring of 1997
at his Chico residence. The fact that his house is within 1,000 feet of
Chico Senior High School could increase the penalty.

Defense lawyer J. Tony Serra said there will be an appeal.

Epis, 35, who has electrical engineering and law degrees, helped finance
the start-up of a cannabis buyers club in Chico after voters approved
California's 1996 initiative allowing the use of marijuana on a doctor's
recommendation.

His prosecution is the first federal criminal case involving such an
organization to reach a jury.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 26.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. granted prosecutor Samuel Wong's
motion that Epis be jailed pending sentencing. Wong pointed out that the
law under which Epis was found guilty mandates immediate incarceration, and
the judge agreed.

Serra asked Damrell to circumvent the statute and allow his client to
remain free until he is sentenced, but the judge wouldn't go along.

Epis and Serra hugged, and Epis was led away by a deputy U.S. marshal.

Even though medical necessity is not a defense in federal court against
marijuana manufacturing charges, the jurors heard a lot of testimony from
Epis and other defense witnesses on the subject, as well as argument by Serra.

After being instructed by Damrell to disregard medicinal-use evidence and
argument, the panel of eight women and four men took less than four hours
to decide Epis' guilt.

As he excused them, Damrell told the jurors they are now free to talk about
the case.

But there was no post-verdict access to the jurors, who have been
quasi-sequestered from the beginning. Just as they have been on every other
trial day for more than two weeks, the panelists -- escorted by court
security officers -- were taken to the basement of the courthouse on a
freight elevator and driven in a van to Cal Expo, where they have parked
throughout the proceedings.

While at the courthouse, the jurors were kept together and always
accompanied by court security officers. Their lunches were brought to them
in the fourth floor juror lounge from the second floor cafeteria.

Damrell ordered these unusual measures because he was afraid the jurors
would be tainted by pro-medical marijuana demonstrators. On the sidewalks
at the corner of Fifth and I streets, these activists sporadically
displayed picket signs attacking the federal no-tolerance pot policy and
what they view as Draconian sentences.

Epis supporters were also in and out of the building and were regular
spectators in the courtroom, making Damrell and Wong uneasy about allowing
jurors to wander around on their own.

As recently as Wednesday, Wong relayed information to the judge from court
security officers that "stickers" supporting medical marijuana were being
left in building restrooms. Damrell agreed that would be inappropriate but
said he would rely on the security officers to make sure any such material
is removed.

Epis still faces a possibility of being held in criminal contempt if it is
determined that he had a hand in distributing a statement by him about the
case that was available from demonstrators June 24, the day the trial was
supposed to start. A hearing on that question is set before Damrell on Aug. 1.

Serra has told the judge that the statement had been on his client's Web
site for months and was downloaded without his permission.

Damrell disqualified the first pool of prospective jurors and a jury was
not selected until June 26. The second group of prospects reported to Arco
Arena and were bused into the courthouse basement. When Serra heard of
this, he protested vigorously, saying that -- in the wake of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks -- Damrell had created an intolerable environment that
would inevitably instill fear and anxiety in the jurors. The attorney asked
for yet a third group of prospects, but the judge rejected that notion.

In addition to the criminal contempt question, the prosecution of Jeffrey
Jones is part of the wreckage left by the trial.

Jones, 28, who headed the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative until it was
shut down recently by a federal court injunction, was detained June 24 by a
drug agent and, at Damrell's request, cited by a security officer for
handing a flier to a potential juror.

By the time he was arraigned Wednesday, however, the case had grown to a
two-count charging document filed by the U.S. attorney's office. It accuses
him of "picketing and parading" and "influencing a juror by writing." Both
are misdemeanors punishable by a year in prison and six months in prison,
respectively.

Jones pleaded not guilty, and a status conference is set for Aug. 7. He was
released on his own recognizance.