GUILTY PLEA IN MEDICAL POT CASE

Plea Bargain May Implicate Oakland Activist Ed Rosenthal

OAKLAND -- An Oakland man arrested in February's federal raids of Bay Area
marijuana sites pleaded guilty Tuesday to cultivation and money laundering
charges that could put him in federal prison for life.

But James Halloran, 61, might not serve a day behind bars. Under his plea
bargain -- filed under seal but discussed in court Tuesday -- he might give
prosecutors information useful in their case against others who were
arrested Feb. 12, including well-known marijuana writer and activist Ed
Rosenthal, 56, of Oakland.

"Mr. Halloran is very ill -- that's why he pled today," Dennis J. Roberts,
Halloran's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong. "He
has hepatitis C."

Roberts said this during a discussion of whether federal law requires
Halloran, who has been free on $500,000 bail since the day after his
arrest, be held in jail until sentencing.

Armstrong said unless the government could recommend Tuesday that Halloran
serve no prison time at all for his crimes, the law requires he be held in
custody now. Assistant U.S. Attorney George L. Bevan Jr. said he couldn't
make such a recommendation Tuesday because Halloran has not yet fulfilled
his end of the plea bargain by providing information.

Armstrong ordered Halloran placed in custody but stayed the order for one
week so Bevan and Roberts can find precedents for keeping him out of jail.

Outside court, Roberts said he's not yet sure Halloran will give
prosecutors information; instead, he said, Halloran might qualify for a
"safety valve" exception to the marijuana cultivation charge's mandatory
10-year minimum prison term. Such exceptions are for first-time offenders
who didn't use violence or have a weapon; didn't cause death or serious
injury; didn't organize, lead, manage or supervise others; and truthfully
cooperated with prosecutors on their own case.

Halloran, Rosenthal, Richard B. Watts and Kenneth Hayes were arrested Feb.
12 as Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided Rosenthal's home office
and other Oakland sites, the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club
in San Francisco, and Hayes' Petaluma home. Medical marijuana advocates say
it was no coincidence

the raids happened the same day DEA chief Asa Hutchinson was in San
Francisco to speak about continuing the war on drugs.

California law says medical use of marijuana is legal; federal law says it
isn't. Court documents show the DEA claims Hayes, Watts and Rosenthal were
involved not only in a medical marijuana dispensary, but in growing
marijuana and selling it for profit to almost anyone, using state law as a
smokescreen for illegal activity.

"I don't think it really means anything to Ed," William Panzer, Rosenthal's
attorney, said Tuesday of Halloran's plea bargain. "I don't think there is
anything Jimmy Halloran could say to them about Ed that Ed isn't going to
say about Ed."

Panzer said Rosenthal believes his activities were legal under state law,
and to whatever extent they were barred by federal law, "that law is
unconstitutional.

"I don't know how he (Halloran) could provide damaging information unless
he lies," Panzer said. "Of course, the government considers 'You're helping
sick people' as damaging information."

Assistant Federal Defender Steven Kalar, representing Watts, 47, said
Tuesday he hadn't known of Halloran's plea bargain and wouldn't comment on it.

Hayes, 34 or 35, was in Canada during the Feb. 12 raids; he was arrested
but released without bail by a Canadian judge.

In pleading guilty Tuesday, Halloran acknowledged growing more than 1,000
marijuana plants in an East 12th Street commercial space rented with cash
proceeds from marijuana sales.

Bevan said DEA agents found 3,453 rooted marijuana plants and 805 unrooted
"clone" plants at the secret greenhouse.

When Armstrong asked Halloran to describe his crime in his own words, he
said, "I'm charged with ... growing what I had considered to be medicinal
marijuana permitted under Proposition 215 in the state of California."

"That's not what you're charged with," the judge replied; Halloran then
said he had cultivated marijuana in violation of federal law, and the judge
accepted that.

Some Bay Area officials have voiced indignant outrage about the DEA raids.
The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night was to consider two resolutions
presented by the city's Police Review Commission: One pledging not to
cooperate with DEA raids of Bay Area medical marijuana facilities and
another in support of Rosenthal.