Pubdate: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) Copyright: 2012 The Press-Enterprise Company Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html Website: http://www.pe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830 Author: Alicia Robinson, Staff Writer SEEKING UTILITIES FOR DISPENSARY LEADS TO ARREST At first he didn't succeed, but trying again led to trouble for a Riverside medical marijuana dispensary operator who police say got a city business license using fake information after his first, more honest attempt was denied. On Tuesday, Riverside police officers in SWAT gear came to Discount Patient Care at 6343 Magnolia Ave. and arrested Jimmie Sutterfield, 29, of Jurupa Valley, and booked him into Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of filing false documents in a public office, perjury and burglary, all felony charges. Sutterfield, who was released Wednesday on bail, could not be reached for comment. No one answered the door or appeared to be at Discount Patient Care on Thursday afternoon, and a home address Sutterfield used on his city application corresponds to a large mobile home development but doesn't include an internal street address or unit number. The issue began Dec. 13, when Sutterfield called Riverside Public Utilities to get service started at his business, Riverside police Detective Brian Money said. The customer service representative asked whether he had a business license, and Sutterfield said he couldn't get one because the city doesn't give them to marijuana dispensaries, Money said. Within the last year, the city added a box on the business tax application -- often referred to as a business license -- asking whether the applicant will "make medical marijuana available." City zoning forbids all dispensaries. Not to be deterred, Sutterfield returned to the city and filled out a business tax application with the dispensary address, listing "Sutterfield Aviation" as an "airframe maintenance" business, according to city records. The medical marijuana box on the form is checked "no." When he called the utility department back, someone recalled Sutterfield's initial request and questioned him about the discrepancy, Money said. "In this particular case, it was just a perfect storm. There were very obvious and blatant communications to the public utilities (staff), who were able to identify it right away." The issue was referred to police, who obtained a warrant against Sutterfield on fraud charges. Money said the dispensary's few other employees were not arrested and will not face charges. The armed SWAT response was "to prevent any accident or any injury" because dispensaries often hire armed security guards or keep weapons on the premises to deter robberies, he said. Mark Johnson, who owns the property the dispensary is on, said Sutterfield deceived him also. Johnson has been involved in unrelated eminent domain litigation with the city for years, and now the city is suing him for leasing to Discount Patient Care, as it has with other property owners where dispensaries have opened. Johnson said he was given different stories about what kind of business would be leasing his storefront but was not told it would be a dispensary, and the actual contract signing was handled by his elderly father because Johnson was out of the country. When he got back to town early in the year, Johnson said, he gave Sutterfield a notice to move out for breach of contract. Although Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos has been seeking to close marijuana dispensaries in the city since 2010, this is an unusual situation. Police don't usually get involved, because the city handles the matter through civil court filings, and most dispensaries open without a business license, Priamos said. He said some might have avoided the utility hook-up issue by moving into existing business locations that already have utility service. It also may be unique in the seemingly clear-cut documentation the city says it has. Detective Money noted that most calls people make to the city are recorded, and there's the business tax application -- evidence that Priamos said put this case "under the category of world's dumbest criminals." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.