PROSECUTION TRIES TO SHOW POT GARDEN LINK AT HEARING

OROVILLE - Prosecutors Wednesday tried to show a link between a series of
allegedly illegal medical marijuana gardens in Butte County.

A judge is hearing evidence in the complicated case to determine whether
13 accused defendants should stand trial on felony charges of marijuana
cultivation and possession of pot for sales.

A Butte County sheriff's investigator testified Wednesday that officers
found medicinal marijuana scripts with many of the same patients' names on
them posted during raids last September on five indoor and outdoor grows
in the foothills near Berry Creek and Concow and a single residence in
Chico.

Assistant district attorney Helen Harberts has essentially divided up her
case between those gardens and about six others in and around Chico and
Forest Ranch.

She has used business records, photos and interviews with witnesses and
some of the arrested suspects to try to show a common link between the
far-flung grows.

The defense, which is scheduled to resume its cross-examination of the
sheriff's investigator today, contends these were lawful medical marijuana
collectives or co-ops.

Chico attorney Jesus Rodriguez pointed out Wednesday the 48 plants for
which his client is being accused of growing illegally had the requisite
number of medical marijuana recommendations posted.

Nor was any evidence found of marijuana sales, such as heavy traffic in an
out of the grow-site or pay-owe sheets, scales or packaging material, the
defense attorney noted.

The case, which was set to conclude today, now could go into early next
week because of the sheer volume of evidence and number of defendants
involved.

On Wednesday, Butte County sheriff's anti-marijuana detective Jacob
Hancock testified in detail about the raids on five gardens in the eastern
foothills surrounding Berry Creek and Concow and a abandoned home in
Chico.

He said officers found scripts with many of the same names of medical
marijuana patients at several of the grow sites.

Patients with whom he spoke later denied either being part of a
collective, or giving permission to have their scripts posted at more than
one garden, the detective told the judge.

Hancock also said Chico resident Casey James Wilkins was the listed
property owner at two of the sites raided, and that personal papers and
other evidence allegedly tied him to at least three of the other grow
sites.

The detective quoted one of the arrested men, Arthur Jenkins, as saying
that Wilkins hired him to tend a 48-plant medical marijuana garden on a
rural property off Danville Circle in Concow.

Initially, Jenkins, who had moved earlier that month into a small camp
trailer on the site after being burned out during last summer's wildfires,
claimed Wilkins also purchased medical marijuana recommendations for him
and his girlfriend, and initially offered to pay him $5,000 to tend the
plants and provide security at the grow site, but wound up agreeing to
take six plants as compensation instead.

Hancock said two of the patients listed at the Concow site were also
posted at a 45-plant outdoor pot garden near a home on George Cameron
Drive in Berry Creek.

During a search of that residence, officers came upon a rattlesnake in a
bucket containing pot downstairs, which an arrested tenant, Keith Oshea,
told them he had placed there to prevent the reptile from harming his
animals.

Under questioning by Harberts, the detective said officers also seized a
digital camera containing photos showing Wilkins and three others arrested
in the case together, along with a spiral notebook in a pickup on the
property listing their names and phone numbers.

Wilkins was the listed owner of a home on Castle Rock Road also in Berry
Creek, where officers reportedly found an elaborate indoor grow room in
addition to a nine-plant medical marijuana garden outside.

Hancock testified records indicated the Chico suspect had purchased the
two-story home with the lakeside view for $750,000, paying $40,000 down
and agreeing to make monthly $900 payments on the residence.

A total of 29 more pot plants were found at a separate medical marijuana
grow off Simpson Ranch Road in Berry Creek.

During questioning, Hancock said that one of two people arrested at that
site, Matthew Herrick, initially denied knowing Wilkins. But when
confronted with evidence, including photos showing the two men together,
he insisted they were "just friends."

The detective testified that officers found records pertaining to
businesses reportedly owned by Wilkins during a raid on another medical
marijuana garden on nearby Pam Court.

One of the patients whose name was posted at both the Pam Court and Concow
grow sites later was quoted by Hancock as claiming she had given her
medical marijuana script to the Wilkins in exchange for two ounces of pot.

Sheriff's officers also served another search warrant at a residence on
Normal Avenue in Chico, but said any plants that were being grown there
had been uprooted prior to the raid.

Hancock quoted a witness whose boyfriend was snared in one of the raids,
as claiming the following morning, Wilkins had showed up at her door with
two equally "disheveled" men, smelling of marijuana, and saying that "all
of his properties had been raided, but adding, "they were all legal and he
shouldn't have a problem."