POT CASE IS PUT ON HOLD

Prop 215: DA office has 3 days to review 200 medical records.

SANTA ANA -- An Orange County Superior Court judge granted a prosecutor's
motion Friday to review some 200 medical records of people using medicinal
marijuana under Prop. 215, and barred the use of the 1996 measure from an
activist's defense on felony drug-sale charges.

Lawyers for Garden Grove resident Marvin Chavez said Judge Robert R.
Fitzgerald's ruling was expected and said they plan to file an appeal next
week with the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Chavez and his attorneys, Robert Kennedy of Long Beach and Jon Alexander of
Orange County, said they were stunned by the judge's off-the-cuff remarks
about marijuana during the proceedings.

"There are some Thai-sticks in the back, if anybody wants them," Fitzgerald
cracked about a potent form of marijuana, a few minutes before the Chavez
hearing.

And as the Chavez case was being called, Fitzgerald said, "Why don't we do
the dope case?"

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom, and one person muffled a booing
reaction.

Kennedy said the comments were insulting to Chavez and about 10 people who
are members of his Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group.

"That was outrageous, to make comments in jest about people who have very
serious illnesses, including cancer and AIDS," he said after the court hearing.

Chavez was arrested in April after allegedly selling marijuana to an
undercover officer posing as a caregiver for a terminally ill uncle.

In Friday's hearing, the prosecutor pushed to ban any reference to Prop.
215, known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

Fitzgerald allowed the defense 72 hours to file its appeal before allowing
the prosecutor to issue the subpoenas on the medical records.

Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust, head of the Narcotics Enforcement
Team, said Chavez was simply attempting to hide behind Prop. 215, and that
the medicinal marijuana measure does not allow for the sale of the substance.

The donation that the support group normally recommends for the medicinal
marijuana is tantamount to a sale, he said.

Armbrust said he estimates that Chavez and the support group make between
$2,000 and $10,000 a week in sales.

"This is a very sophisticated marijuana sale operation," he added.

Kennedy said the merits of the case, including Chavez's activities under
Prop. 215, should be decided by a jury.

Fitzgerald allowed the defense 72 hours to file the appeal before allowing
the prosecutor to issue the subpoenas on the medical records.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett