JURY ACQUITS MEDICAL-MARIJUANA GROWER

OROVILLE -- After an hour-long deliberation Friday afternoon, a jury
found a Chico man not guilty of charges he cultivated marijuana and
stored it illegally.

It's thought by attorneys to be the first case tried in Butte County
Superior Court under California Senate Bill 420, which allows people
with medical marijuana prescriptions to form a cooperative or
collective to grow for their recommended use.

Brett Eric Johnsen was on trial for what Butte County authorities
said was an illegal garden growing in his house on West First Street.
Butte County sheriff's officers found the garden May 30 upon entering
Johnsen's home on a search warrant. They reportedly found plants
hanging from a bedroom ceiling and an elaborate garden filled with
flowering marijuana in the basement.

Johnsen's defense was that he was growing the plants for his own use
as a medical-marijuana user and for others who have prescriptions to use it.

The law allows collectives to have eight ounces per patient, or six
mature plants or 12 immature plants.

Deputy district attorney A. J. Haggard contended deputies confiscated
31 plants, which is over the legal limit allowed under SB420, and
which officer Jacob Hancock testified he estimated to weigh a total
of 7.9 pounds.

Johnsen's attorney, Jodea Foster, argued his client was growing the
plants as part of a collective with two other people and questioned
the amount and weight of the seized plants.

In the second day of testimony, Johnsen testified there were only 18
plants growing in the house that had been started in mid-March with
"clones" -- pre-started plants obtained from a cannabis club in
Oakland. It was the second crop he and his friend, Simmon Flagg, had
grown since last December. He said he had not grown pot before that time.

The two had an agreement to split the costs of the first crop and
share the yield equally.

Johnsen also said he agreed to allow Flagg to bring in an extra
person for the second crop. "I said fine, as long as everything's legal."

Foster called a witness who contradicted the district attorney's
estimate of the weight of the plants seized.

Jason Browne, who was considered an expert, described an extensive
background dealing with medical marijuana issues and working with law
enforcement and health officials in several counties.

Browne provided a complex formula for determining potential yield
from a crop that contradicted the officers' estimate the garden would
have yielded 7.9 pounds.

Using a method agreed upon by the Drug Enforcement Agency in studies
with the University of Mississippi, he used the square footage of the
garden area, the wattage of the lights used to grow and other
calculations to determine the garden would have yielded about 1.5 pounds.

Browne also testified that it didn't matter how many plants were in
the room because given the square footage, the yield would have been
the same. He said the size of the plants is what mattered.

Hancock testified the plants in the basement ranged from 1 to 5 feet high.

The jury went into deliberations shortly after 3 p.m. and returned
the verdict at 4 p.m.