POT GROWER DREW EYE OF LAW LONG AGO

King County sheriff's detectives began investigating allegations of
drug dealing by medical-marijuana advocate Steve Sarich months before
last week's break-in and shootout at his Kirkland-area home.

Two parallel investigations are under way, said Sgt. John Urquhart,
spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Office.

One investigation is looking at the March 15 attempted robbery of pot
and cash at the house Sarich shares with his girlfriend, Chelsea
Fennell. Five suspects, including a 19-year-old who was critically
injured when Sarich exchanged gunfire with a 17-year-old suspect
armed with a shotgun, already have been arrested and charged in
connection with the early morning break-in.

The other investigation, which began in November, is examining
whether Sarich, 59, and Fennell, 20, are manufacturing and
distributing marijuana illegally, according to two search-warrant
affidavits filed in King County District Court in Shoreline.

It is the second time since 2007 that Sarich has been investigated
for illegal drug activity.

Sheriff's detectives also are investigating Jason Ling, a California
osteopath who has been writing the bulk of medical-marijuana
authorizations for people who attend Saturday clinics on Sarich's
property, according to Urquhart and the warrants.

Though state law prohibits medical-marijuana dispensaries, Sarich
acknowledged he in fact is providing marijuana for medical use out of
his basement.

He said he and Fennell, who are both qualified medical-marijuana
patients, act as "designated providers" of marijuana for other
patients. He said it's all legal because the patients sign an order
temporarily designating him as their provider - typically, for 15 or
30 minutes at a time.

That practice goes against the spirit of the state's
medical-marijuana law, Urquhart said. He said legislators intended
for a spouse or caregiver to be able to legally obtain marijuana for
patients who are too ill to get it themselves, not for someone to
provide pot for multiple patients.

According to the search warrant, detectives found a stack of 138
"designated provider" forms, with Fennell listed as the provider for
most of those individual patients.

"A Thorn in Their Side"

Sarich, who portrays himself as a patient advocate and legal adviser
for sick people who want to use pot legally, said his business barely
breaks even.

"I'm a thorn in their side," Sarich said of his uneasy relationship
with the criminal-justice system. "I'm tired of being messed with,
and I'm tired of having to defend patients."

But detectives, in their affidavits, paint a picture of Sarich's
business as a lucrative pot-selling enterprise.

According to the warrants, up to 200 people would pay $200 each to
attend a Saturday seminar on Sarich's property, meet with a doctor
and receive a state authorization to use medical marijuana. They then
pay $15 a plant and between $9 and $15 for a gram of processed marijuana.

"Sarich dispenses the marijuana and makes a large cash profit," one
affidavit says.

On at least one occasion, a confidential informant working with
detectives was able to obtain a medical-marijuana authorization and
buy pot from Sarich without providing medical records from his
doctor, according to the same warrant.

Court records indicate the operation was so large that Sarich hired
parking attendants and used orange cones to mark parking spots for as
many as 60 cars at a time on his 3.5-acre rental property, which
includes two houses.

A former parking attendant and another former employee of Sarich's
are among the five suspects linked to the March 15 break-in,
according to charging documents filed last week.

The November investigation began after another medical-marijuana
advocate complained of narcotics activity at Sarich's home and told
investigators Sarich was flying in a California doctor - Ling - to
write prescriptions, the affidavit says.

When detectives searched Sarich's house after the break-in, they
found 375 marijuana plants - 259 starter plants, 80 medium-size
plants and 36 larger plants - in three grow rooms, the warrant said.
They also found a safe with 25 Mason jars containing different
strains of marijuana, several labeled with prices per gram.

Also in the safe was $10,712 in cash, apparently deposits from the
day's marijuana transactions, the warrant says. Detectives also found
what appeared to be sales records that showed Sarich collected
$14,653 between March 1 and 5, the bulk of it in cash, according to
the warrant.

"From what we can tell so far ... this is going to involve tens of
thousands of dollars," Urquhart said.

Three handguns, a scope rifle, a short-handled shotgun, ammunition, a
money counter, a credit-card scanner, 150 glass pipes, 120 vaporizers
and a vast assortment of baked goods, frozen meals, desserts and
chocolates containing "medicinal cannabis" also were found in the
home, the affidavit says.

Seven computers were seized and will be examined for evidence related
to Sarich's business, Urquhart said.

"This Is Not a Secret"

This isn't the first time Sarich has come under scrutiny.

The warrant says that federal investigators in 2007 seized 1,554
plants from the Everett rental house where Sarich was living at the
time. Sarich never was indicted.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Seattle, said she could not comment on the case since no charges were filed.

Sarich owns two companies: Sentry Medical Group, which pays a doctor
to review patients' medical records to confirm that they have a
condition that qualifies them for medical marijuana, and CannaCare,
which provides preapproved patients with plants for a "donation" of
$15 per plant.

Sarich started CannaCare in April 2007, and founded his medical group
about a year later. The medical group's official address is Sarich's
home in the Kirkland area, and he is listed as the sole manager,
according to documents Sarich filed with the Washington Secretary of
State's Office.

Dr. Mohammad H. Said, an Ephrata internist, said Sarich paid him
$1,500 to evaluate patients when Sarich's clinic was set up in
Bellevue. The flat fee, he said, was typical for what he is paid for
daily clinics.

"This is not a secret, that patients have a place to go for
medicine," Sarich said. "We keep our doors open, but nobody's making
a pile of money doing this."