THE GUBERNATORIAL RIVALRY BEHIND THE POT BUST

By Kate Rix

Dennis Peron pot club founder, author of the measure that became medical
marijuana law, and dark horse candidate for Governor may be mellow but
he's hip to the games of politics.

In fact Peron, whose marijuana possession and conspiracy trial was bounced
from Oakland to San Francisco last month, says there's little besides
politics behind the state's case against him.

Peron's defense attorney filed a motion filed last week asking that
Attorney General Dan Lungren who opposed the medical marijuana measure
and his entire office be disqualified from prosecuting the case.

Among Peron's arguments: Lungren shouldn't be prosecuting Peron because
they're both running for governor. Peron, who calls himself a "liberal
Republican", announced his candidacy in August.

"At minimum, it appears that Lungren's acting as an advocate for his own
personal gain and not for justice," says defense attorney J. David Nick.

The motion to disqualify the office states that Lungren holds "personal and
political animosity" against Peron and five other defendants in the case.
It calls the investigation of Peron's Cannabis Buyer's Club a "politically
motivated charade of due process."

Nick writes that, while searching the club's Market Street office, officers
"set out to find evidence of nonmedicinal sales . . . to defeat the
Medical Marijuana Proposition . . . to chill support for the Proposition
and scare supporters away."

Nick says Lungren used his office to campaign against the measure while
Peron's case was pending, by holding press conferences about the case,
discussing it in the media and showing up at rallies opposed to the ballot
measure.

State and federal agents raided the S.F. club last August, just three
months before the medical marijuana measure passed at the polls. Despite
the fact that the club is located in San Francisco and that most of the
alleged criminal activity took place in the city, prosecutors presented
their case to an Alameda County grand jury.

Last month, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Dean Beaupre moved the
trial to San Francisco, citing an "appearance of forum shopping" in the
attorney general's choice of venue. Defense attorneys say the San Francisco
venue will be favorable to them.

Senior Assistant AG Ronald Bass, who is trying People v. Peron, 128473,
declined to comment about the case Monday.

In the past he has defended the AG by insisting that some of the charged
crimes took place in Alameda County. He has also said that his office only
became involved after agents told the AG that federal and San Francisco
prosecutors bowed out.

Peron's Nov. 18 motion to toss the case is on hold after the First District
Court of Appeals stayed the proceedings last week.

Justices Gary Strankman, William Stein and Robert Dossee have ordered more
briefing before they rule on the state's appeal of Beaupre's decision to
change the venue.

Prosecutors argued in their appeal that they properly filed the case in a
jurisdiction where they contend illegal acts took place.

"We felt that the best spot to prosecute was the place that was the source
of the drugs and we believe that was Alameda County," said Matt Ross, a
spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Nick says that the attorney general asked for the stay out of fear of the
San Francisco bench.

"They've obtained a stay so San Francisco won't rule on our motion [to
disqualify]," he says. "Our point is that a political enemy cannot use his
office to bring down that adversary. That's what Daniel Lungren has done.
It's obvious to a 10yearold.