Back in the Slammer

EFFORT TO FREE BRYAN EPIS CONTINUES

For a time Bryan Epis was a hero among medical-marijuana activists.
Now he's more like a martyr to the cause.

That's because, after an epic legal battle lasting since his arrest
for marijuana cultivation nearly 13 years ago, in June 1997, the
Chico man is now back in prison, ordered in February to serve out his
original 10-year sentence. More precisely, he's in the Sacramento
County Jail, waiting transfer to a state prison.

To his longtime girlfriend, Monica Focht, and his 16-year-old
daughter, Ashley, it seems terribly unfair that, at a time when
anyone can go online and find the addresses of hundreds of
collectives and dispensaries selling marijuana up and down the state,
he's in custody facing several more years of confinement for growing
medical marijuana.

And they're at a loss to understand why he's being held in the
notoriously grungy county jail. He'd been on probation and bail for
more than five years and never missed a court date, so he clearly
wasn't a flight risk. Why, they wonder, wasn't he just ordered to
report directly to federal prison, as most nonviolent federal
offenders are, rather than put in jail?

And they're still trying to get him set free. Money is a big problem.
Epis and his family have spent more than $200,000 on his defense, and
his current lawyer wants cash on the barrelhead. He is preparing a
habeas corpus writ and also a pardon petition to be sent to President
Obama; his current fee is $35,000.

From his jail cell, Epis has sent a letter to as many cannabis
dispensary operators as possible, asking them to ask each of their
members to contribute $1 to his legal defense, in care of his mother,
Barbara Epis, and addressed to Bryan Epis, 227 W. 22nd St., Chico, CA
95928. He is also asking those members to use his business, a hotel
booking site, www.lodgingsite.com, to make reservations, for which
the dispensaries can receive a "10 percent cash back" pinch of the revenues.

Bryan Epis is a historic figure of sorts-the first person arrested
for growing medical marijuana following passage of Proposition 215,
the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996. He was caught growing 458 plants,
most of them seedlings, in the basement of his home on West Frances
Willard in the Mansion District.

Five men were involved in the grow, and each had a doctor's
recommendation. Only Epis could be tied to directly to the plants,
however, so only he was charged.

Local law-enforcement officials, led by District Attorney Mike
Ramsey, quickly turned his case over to the federal courts, which
don't recognize Prop 215. The most serious charge was conspiracy to
manufacture 1,000 plants within 1,000 feet of a school (Chico High).

For five years, Epis was out on bail, awaiting trial. When finally he
came before U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell, in 2002, he was
not allowed to mention medical marijuana. Prosecutors presented a
document Epis had drafted but never acted on that described a
possible medi-pot dispensary in Silicon Valley as proof that he
intended a much larger business in Chico, and the jury bought it.

He was sentenced to the mandatory minimum, 10 years. He spent 25
months in prisons on Terminal Island and at Lompoc before being freed
because of a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the federal stance
on medical marijuana.

Once that was decided in the feds' favor, Epis was back before
Damrell for reconsideration. It took three years, but on Feb. 22 the
judge ordered him back to prison. With time served and good-behavior
credits, he could be out in five years.

Monica Focht and Ashley Epis visit Epis twice a week in Sacramento,
but they're eager for him to be transferred to Lompoc, even though
it's farther away. There they'll be able to touch each other, rather
than talk on telephones through a window.

Ashley has grown up feeling the anxiety her father's tenuous legal
status has fostered. She knows him as a warm-hearted man who wouldn't
hurt anyone, who goes out of his way to help others, and who was
diligent about cooperating with authorities for so many years.

From her visits to the Sacramento jail, Ashley knows it is "full of
violent criminals" and not a place where her father is safe. "I
thought it would be over by now," she said.

Both women wonder why the government thought it was necessary to
spend as much as $2 million-their estimate-prosecuting Epis.

If you wish to know more, make a contribution or help with Epis'
pardon petition, go to www.bestlodging.com/politics.