DA RECALL PETITIONS SUBMITTED

Marin District Attorney Paula Kamena may face a recall vote next year after
foes of her medical marijuana policies and her handling of an attempted
child abduction case filed petitions yesterday containing far more
signatures than required to force a vote.

A spirited contingent of recall supporters gathered outside the Marin
Registrar of Voters offices in San Rafael yesterday as Lynnette Shaw,
founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, presented
three boxes of petitions that she said contained 20,691 signatures in
support of Kamena's recall.

If county officials verify that 13,756 of those signees are registered
Marin voters, a election will be called May 8 to ask if Kamena should be
recalled.

This special election would cost the county an estimated $500,000 to hold,
Marin Registrar of Voters Michael Smith said.

"This is for the little people, who have the right to take to the streets
and demand change," Shaw said in filing the petitions yesterday.

Shaw blasted prosecution guidelines Kamena instituted in medical marijuana
cases as ineffective and a green light to law enforcement officers to seize
all marijuana they find - and ask questions about medical necessities later.

"Her guidelines cite federal law that says all marijuana is contraband and
may be confiscated," Shaw said.

She said that statement gives officers license to seize the pot, despite
Kamena's guidelines saying that persons can possess six mature pot plants
and a half ounce of dried marijuana if they can show a legitimate medical need.

"Her so-called guidelines mean nothing, because they are considered only
after an arrest, after a person's medicine has been seized and destroyed."

Kamena says she is being unfairly targeted and that medical marijuana
policies adopted by her office are among the most liberal in the state.

She also accused the recall campaign of misleading voters, by citing
medical marijuana policies in urging people to sign petitions that fail to
even mention medical pot.

Kamena said she was approached by a signature-gatherer at the Montecito
Shopping Center in San Rafael two weeks ago, who told her that a recall was
necessary because "dying AIDS patients are being prosecuted for medical
marijuana."

"There isn't a single case of an AIDS patient that I know of who has been
prosecuted," she said. "So this guy was saying things that were untrue and
asking me to sign a petition that didn't say anything about medical marijuana."

Kamena also noted that her office has never taken the slightest action
against Shaw's Fairfax-based distribution club for medical marijuana.

"Other counties send in their drug task force because they're selling (at
the clubs)," Kamena said. Referring to Shaw, Kamena asked: "Is anyone
bothering this woman?"

Without mentioning medical pot, petitions asking for Kamena's recall cite
her role in the prosecution of a Novato mother for violating court orders
growing out of an ugly child-custody dispute the woman had with an
ex-boyfriend.

The woman, Carol Mardeusz, was convicted by a jury of four felonies and
faces a sentencing hearing next week that could bring as much as four years
in prison.

Meanwhile, efforts to recall three judges failed to achieve the necessary
signatures by yesterday's deadline.

Only 567 of the required total of 35,481 signatures needed were filed
yesterday in support of recalling judges Lynn Duryee, Michael Dufficy and
Terrence Boren.

"Judges Duryee, Dufficy and Boren are very pleased to learn the recall
effort has failed," said Gary Ragghianti, a San Rafael attorney who chaired
the Committee to Retain an Independent Judiciary that was formed to defend
the judges against the recall.

Ragghianti said the judges were thankful to the Marin citizens "who have
supported them and the essential principle of an independent judiciary."

A fourth judge targeted in the recall movement, Verna Adams, has a petition
deadline in March. Ragghianti said he was confident the "ill-advised"
effort to recall Adams would fail as well.

Peter Romanowsky of Sausalito, who led the judicial recall effort, said:
"We didn't have the financial support we needed and two of our most active
signature gatherers were arrested and kept from helping our cause."

Another recall leader, Ron Mazzaferro, said yesterday that the signature
requirement set by the county registrar is being challenged in the case of
the judges. That 11,287 figure amounts to 20 percent of the last vote in a
Marin Superior Court Judge election - in June 1998 - which county officials
say abides by state recall statutes. Mazzaferro said the figure is
arbitrary, especially in the case of Dufficy, who was not challenged in
1998 and therefore didn't tally a single vote.

"Twenty percent of zero is still zero," Mazzaferro said.

The recall effort against Kamena was energized in May after the medical
marijuana alliance entered the fray. Shaw said citizens who disagreed with
Kamena's prosecution guidelines contributed at least $15,000 to the cause,
which helped hire a handful of paid signature gatherers.

Michael Smith, the Marin registrar of voters, said workers in his office
will spend the next several weeks combing over the petitions filed
yesterday to ensure the signatures they contain were provided by registered
Marin voters.

Smith has until Dec. 18 to verify the signatures.

If a recall election is called, the registrar's office will open a
month-long nomination period in January asking for potential candidates for
district attorney should Kamena be successfully recalled.

Shaw said the marijuana alliance would likely endorse an alternate
candidate on the May ballot seeking Kamena's recall.

Kamena said she believes voters will support her and turn back the recall
effort if a special election is called.

She cited her accomplishments in her nearly two years in office, including
involvement in the creation of the Jeannette Prandi Center to help young
victims of abuse and Marin's first-ever juvenile drug court.

She admitted she had purposely kept a low profile in recent months hoping
the energy of the recall effort would wane. "If in fact they are
successful, it will be time for me to respond in a more forceful way," she
said.