Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Copyright: 2002 The Sacramento Bee Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376 Author: Denny Walsh, Bee Staff Writer POT TRIAL LAWYER ASKS JUDGE TO THROW OUT TWO CHARGES The government wrapped up its case Wednesday in the marijuana-growing trial of Bryan James Epis, and his lawyer asked the judge to throw out half the charges due to "an utter lack of evidence." The 35-year-old Epis, who helped establish and supply a cannabis buyers' club in Chico, does not deny cultivating marijuana. But he insists he did not profit from the venture and sought only to help sick people with doctors' recommendations, in compliance with California's Compassionate Use Act. What he and his lawyer, J. Tony Serra, hotly dispute is that Epis agreed with others to hike his own production to more than 1,000 plants, a charge that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison upon conviction in federal court. The two counts in the indictment that embody that charge are what Serra asked U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. to dismiss at the close of the government's case. Damrell reserved ruling in the matter. The other two counts charge Epis with growing at least 100 plants. Conviction on that charge carries a minimum five-year term. Assistant U.S. attorney Samuel Wong argued that the evidence supports a 1,000-plant conspiracy. He reminded the judge that fingerprints of two other people were lifted from cultivation and processing equipment in Epis' Chico residence when it was searched June 25, 1997. A Jiffy Lube receipt written to one of those individuals also was found in the residence, Wong said. The prosecutor also argued that evidence shows Epis was assisted by another person. It further shows that Epis was sharing each harvest with at least two people, Wong said. Finally, Wong noted that a car belonging to David Kasakove, the operator of the buyers' club and one of the people whose prints were found at the house, was seen at Epis' residence three months before the search. Serra countered that, if there was enough evidence to place Kasakove in a 1,000-plant conspiracy, he would have been charged along with Epis. "There is no evidence of an express agreement," he said, adding that the material upon which Wong is relying is "fatally ambiguous." The prosecution is based on the fruits of the search and the testimony of two officers who were there -- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Ronald Mancini and Michael Shane Redmond, then a Butte County sheriff's sergeant and now a state agent assigned to gambling investigations. The search team found a hydroponic grow operation in the basement, a processing room on the second floor, and 458 plants in various stages of development. Evidence that Epis was helping patients and that the growing operation post-dated passage of the state's medical marijuana initiative is not admissible under federal law. It is the first federal criminal case involving a cannabis buyers' club to reach a jury. The key document underlying Wong's theory that Epis was looking forward to big money as a major distributor is a computer-generated table of projected sales and expenses from March 21, 1997, to Jan. 1, 1998, that was found in the house. It estimates sales of smokable pot extracted from the plants' buds and baked goods made from the plants' leaves would yield a net weekly profit of $1,896,960 by the end of 1997. Thousands of plants would be required to generate profits of that magnitude, Redmond testified. He cited extra equipment and supplies found in the house that, but for the raid, could have been used to expand the grow. Serra told the jury in his opening statement that the computer document's data are not confined to Chico Medical Marijuana Caregivers, with which Epis was affiliated. Rather, he said, they reflect membership in medical marijuana organizations throughout California. The defense lawyer began presenting his case Wednesday afternoon. The trial will resume Monday. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom