Pubdate: Wed, 23 May 2001
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

ATTEMPT TO OUST MARIN'S D.A. FAILS MISERABLY

Resounding Rejection Of Marijuana Activists

Marin County District Attorney Paula Kamena resoundingly defeated yesterday 
a recall attempt backed by a coalition of medical marijuana activists and 
disenchanted family court litigants.

Voters clearly were not swayed by arguments that Kamena was victimizing 
users of medicinal marijuana, voting by more than 4 to 1 to retain Marin's 
first female district attorney. In unofficial final results, the effort to 
oust Kamena failed 40,777 votes to 6,735 votes, or 86 percent to 14 percent.

"This is a very important day for Marin County," Kamena said last night 
during a victory celebration at Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael. "The 
voters told the world that they would not accept deceptive and misleading 
tactics or political pressure from people who want to make the D.A. bend to 
their will."

The failed attempt to oust Kamena means replacement candidate Tom Van Zandt,

a patent attorney who has never handled a criminal case, will not get the 
experience of being Marin County's top prosecutor.

The election was a kind of test case in a statewide effort to force county 
prosecutors to honor Proposition 215, the 1996 state initiative allowing 
the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. (The U.S. 
Supreme Court ruled last week that federal anti-marijuana laws make no 
exception for medicinal use.)

Kamena was the first of six district attorneys in the state threatened with 
recall by medical marijuana activists to actually face a vote of the people.

The 55-year-old career prosecutor, who in 1999 was elected as Marin 
County's first female district attorney, was forced to fight for her job 
not only against the cannabis lobby but also against a fringe group of 
unhappy family court litigants.

Medical marijuana activists said yesterday's failed attempt would not deter 
their advocacy.

"It's been very important that we took a stand for civil rights and medical 
rights," said Lynette Shaw, head of the Marin Alliance for Medical 
Marijuana. "This is just a start. We need to initiate a policy statewide 
that stops police from harassing patients, pulling plants and confiscating 
medicine."

Marin's recall movement actually started out as an attempt to oust several 
judges who at one time or another handled a case involving Carol Mardeusz.

Mardeusz lost custody of her daughter in 1995 after a bitter court battle 
with the girl's father. She has been peppering the courts with legal 
challenges ever since, repeatedly accusing the father of child molestation.

She was declared a vexatious litigant in Sonoma County, and prosecutors in 
Sonoma and Marin concluded that her very public allegations against the 
father were at best unprovable.

A jury in Marin County found her guilty last year of falsifying a court 
order and perjuring herself in an attempt to steal custody of her daughter.

A group of divorced parents upset with the outcome of their child custody 
cases rallied to her defense, but they could not collect enough signatures 
to recall the judges.

Instead, they enlisted the help of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana,

which gathered enough signatures for the Kamena recall even though there is 
no mention of medical marijuana on the petition.

Van Zandt, the only candidate to replace Kamena, is Mardeusz's brother. He 
accused the district attorney of refusing to investigate the family court 
judges or their alleged co-conspirators in a scheme to railroad his sister 
and others.

Kamena argued that she had nothing to do with family law and nobody ever 
accused the judges of any legitimate crimes.

But it was pot, not family law, that was believed to be the biggest threat 
to Kamena's job.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming the federal prohibition 
against pot clearly hurt the case against Kamena. Even so, most observers 
considered Kamena's policy on the prosecution of medical marijuana cases to 
be relatively progressive.

She is one of 15 district attorneys who have set guidelines for marijuana 
prosecutions, exempting people with fewer than seven mature plants, 12 
immature plants and a half-pound of dried weed.

Nonetheless, pot proponents said that her guidelines did not prevent the 
arrest of patients and suppliers or the confiscation of their medicinal plants.

Kamena, who raised about $80,000 to fight the recall, said she is proud of 
her record since taking office.
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