COUNTY CHALLENGES CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT FILED BY POT ACTIVIST

Placer County is challenging a civil rights lawsuit filed by Steve
Kubby, the former Libertarian candidate for governor arrested in 1999,
because of what has been described as his "apparent flight" from
California after convictions on drug charges.

Attorney David Huskey of the county counsel's office argues in a
November legal filing that Kubby has "unclean hands" in suing the county.

Kubby was convicted of possessing small quantities of psychedelic
mushrooms and mescaline, while marijuana cultivation charges against
him were dismissed after a jury voted 11-1 for acquittal last year.

He contends in his lawsuit that a county narcotics task force used
excessive force during what Kubby calls an illegal search of his home
in the Tahoe area.

Kubby describes himself as a terminal cancer patient using marijuana
for medicinal purposes.

He ran for governor in 1996. Kubby has said that he moved to British
Columbia because jail would interrupt his marijuana cancer therapy and
endanger his life.

Huskey said that law enforcement officials acted properly during the
search and that Kubby's claims of excessive force are contradicted by
a tape of the raid on his own Web site.

Huskey said that Kubby would be "subject to potential arrest" if he
returned to the United States.

Daniel Halpern, a San Jose attorney representing Kubby, could not be
reached for comment regarding Placer County's legal arguments about
the case.

Placer County seeks to join Kubby's civil lawsuit with seven other
cases raising similar legal issues in connection with drug raids
undertaken by the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

"They're meritless cases that we're looking forward to trying," Huskey
said. "They're very important to the officers. They've been falsely
accused."

The cases are expected to be heard by the federal district court in
Sacramento in 2003.

A federal judge last year dismissed one lawsuit filed against the
Placer County Sheriff's Department by a family who said their civil
rights were violated during a search of their Sacramento home for marijuana.

The suit had been filed over a 1998 search that the family contended
terrorized them after officers pointed automatic weapons and
handcuffed the husband and wife while their son, a minor, watched from
his bedroom.

Officers involved in the search said in declarations filed in
connection with the lawsuit that they acted properly, entering the
home with service pistols drawn and then holstering the weapons.

Timothy Ryan, the attorney representing the family, said the judge
ruled on statue of limitations grounds that require filing a lawsuit
within one year of an alleged incident.