Pubdate: Fri, 12 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
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

CONVICTION IN FEDERAL POT TRIAL

The Jurors Reach A Verdict After Being Told To Ignore All Medical-Use 
Evidence And Argument.

Bryan James Epis, who says he smoked marijuana for chronic pain and wanted 
to grow it for others who were sick, was found guilty Thursday by a jury in 
Sacramento federal court of conspiracy and manufacturing the drug.

He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison on the jury's finding 
that he conspired to eventually boost his crop to at least 1,000 plants. 
The panel also found that he grew at least 100 plants in the spring of 1997 
at his Chico residence. The fact that his house is within 1,000 feet of 
Chico Senior High School could increase the penalty.

Defense lawyer J. Tony Serra said there will be an appeal.

Epis, 35, who has electrical engineering and law degrees, helped finance 
the start-up of a cannabis buyers club in Chico after voters approved 
California's 1996 initiative allowing the use of marijuana on a doctor's 
recommendation.

His prosecution is the first federal criminal case involving such an 
organization to reach a jury.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 26.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. granted prosecutor Samuel Wong's 
motion that Epis be jailed pending sentencing. Wong pointed out that the 
law under which Epis was found guilty mandates immediate incarceration, and 
the judge agreed.

Serra asked Damrell to circumvent the statute and allow his client to 
remain free until he is sentenced, but the judge wouldn't go along.

Epis and Serra hugged, and Epis was led away by a deputy U.S. marshal.

Even though medical necessity is not a defense in federal court against 
marijuana manufacturing charges, the jurors heard a lot of testimony from 
Epis and other defense witnesses on the subject, as well as argument by Serra.

After being instructed by Damrell to disregard medicinal-use evidence and 
argument, the panel of eight women and four men took less than four hours 
to decide Epis' guilt.

As he excused them, Damrell told the jurors they are now free to talk about 
the case.

But there was no post-verdict access to the jurors, who have been 
quasi-sequestered from the beginning. Just as they have been on every other 
trial day for more than two weeks, the panelists -- escorted by court 
security officers -- were taken to the basement of the courthouse on a 
freight elevator and driven in a van to Cal Expo, where they have parked 
throughout the proceedings.

While at the courthouse, the jurors were kept together and always 
accompanied by court security officers. Their lunches were brought to them 
in the fourth floor juror lounge from the second floor cafeteria.

Damrell ordered these unusual measures because he was afraid the jurors 
would be tainted by pro-medical marijuana demonstrators. On the sidewalks 
at the corner of Fifth and I streets, these activists sporadically 
displayed picket signs attacking the federal no-tolerance pot policy and 
what they view as Draconian sentences.

Epis supporters were also in and out of the building and were regular 
spectators in the courtroom, making Damrell and Wong uneasy about allowing 
jurors to wander around on their own.

As recently as Wednesday, Wong relayed information to the judge from court 
security officers that "stickers" supporting medical marijuana were being 
left in building restrooms. Damrell agreed that would be inappropriate but 
said he would rely on the security officers to make sure any such material 
is removed.

Epis still faces a possibility of being held in criminal contempt if it is 
determined that he had a hand in distributing a statement by him about the 
case that was available from demonstrators June 24, the day the trial was 
supposed to start. A hearing on that question is set before Damrell on Aug. 1.

Serra has told the judge that the statement had been on his client's Web 
site for months and was downloaded without his permission.

Damrell disqualified the first pool of prospective jurors and a jury was 
not selected until June 26. The second group of prospects reported to Arco 
Arena and were bused into the courthouse basement. When Serra heard of 
this, he protested vigorously, saying that -- in the wake of the Sept. 11 
terrorist attacks -- Damrell had created an intolerable environment that 
would inevitably instill fear and anxiety in the jurors. The attorney asked 
for yet a third group of prospects, but the judge rejected that notion.

In addition to the criminal contempt question, the prosecution of Jeffrey 
Jones is part of the wreckage left by the trial.

Jones, 28, who headed the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative until it was 
shut down recently by a federal court injunction, was detained June 24 by a 
drug agent and, at Damrell's request, cited by a security officer for 
handing a flier to a potential juror.

By the time he was arraigned Wednesday, however, the case had grown to a 
two-count charging document filed by the U.S. attorney's office. It accuses 
him of "picketing and parading" and "influencing a juror by writing." Both 
are misdemeanors punishable by a year in prison and six months in prison, 
respectively.

Jones pleaded not guilty, and a status conference is set for Aug. 7. He was 
released on his own recognizance.
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