PLEA BARGAIN CONCLUDES CASE AGAINST POT CLUB ACTIVIST

Pot Club Activist's Case Ends With Deal Co-founder Peter Baez Placed On
Probation; Felony Counts Dropped

The high-profile case against Peter Baez, who founded one of the first
medicinal marijuana centers in Santa Clara County only to be charged with
drug crimes, ended in a Palo Alto courtroom late Thursday when he pleaded
no contest to a single misdemeanor in a deal with prosecutors, his
attorneys said.

The plea bargain resulted in the dismissal of seven felony counts against
Baez, 36, in exchange for his plea to maintaining a place for the sale of
marijuana, said his attorney, Gerald Uelmen. He did not receive jail time
and will have to pay a $100 fine.

"To a great extent, I think this is a vindication for Peter,'"said Uelmen.

The settlement comes on the heels of recent appellate court decisions that
weakened the district attorney's 2-year-old case, Uelmen said. One of the
rulings led to the dismissal last month of charges against Avant! Corp.
executives who had been charged with stealing trade secrets.

District Attorney George Kennedy said late Thursday that he could not
verify the details of the plea. But he confirmed that his office had been
prepared to settle the case. "I don't want to put him in his grave," he
said of Baez, who is fighting cancer. When he left work at 5:20 p.m.
Thursday, Kennedy said, he had heard nothing about a bargain being struck.

In addition to the $100 fine, Uelmen said, Superior Court Judge Diane
Northway put Baez on a year of supervised probation. She ordered him to
perform 50 hours of community service and to reimburse the county Housing
Authority for any excess benefits he may have received.

Baez had been executive director of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis
Center, which provided marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients for about a
year until it closed after his arrest in May 1998.

Baez said Thursday night he is immensely relieved to put the case behind
him, and has no plans to get back into the medicinal marijuana dispensing
business. But he will remain an advocate for medicinal marijuana for the
sick and dying.

He said the ordeal has left him exhausted. "I was attacked. My character
was attacked. I was handcuffed. I was degraded," he said. "It just took a
toll on me."

Immediately after Thursday's court hearing, Baez said, he called his
parents in Connecticut. His father, a retired minister and military
veteran, wept at the news. "I said, 'It's over, dad, it's over.' He was
very, very happy for me."

His cousin, folk singer Joan Baez, was in the courtroom Thursday, as was
his partner, Jesse Garcia, the cannabis center co-founder. Peter Baez drew
on his cousin's explanation of why it was time to settle the case. "To
quote Gandhi," he said, "it's OK to compromise, if you don't compromise
your soul."

Under the settlement, Baez said, he would get back most of the $29,000 that
was in the center's bank account, which was frozen after his arrest. Of the
$20,000 plus interest he hopes to get back, he said, much of it will go to
pay his attorneys.

In May 1998, Baez was indicted by a grand jury on seven felony counts,
including five counts of illegally selling marijuana and two counts of
grand theft.

Prosecutors accused Baez of operating the center in violation of police
department regulations requiring him to verify doctors' prescriptions for
marijuana.

Uelmen attributed Kennedy's willingness to settle the case to two recent
appellate court decisions. The most significant, said Uelmen, was a ruling
last month that Baez had made a credible showing of discriminatory
prosecution. His lawyers had argued that he was singled out for prosecution
because he was providing medicinal marijuana when others were doing the
same thing. His attorneys were seeking access to internal district attorney
memos about the decision to file grand theft charges against him.

In the other case, the 6th District Court of Appeal ruled that the
prosecution would have to produce transcripts from the grand jury hearings
that led to Baez's indictment. It turned out the district attorney did not
have those records.

Contact Becky Bartindale at bbartindale@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5459.