Pubdate: Fri, 11 Oct 2013
Source: San Bernardino Sun (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact:  http://www.sbsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1417
Author: Wes Woods

CIVIL TRIAL BETWEEN MARIJUANA ACTIVIST, OPPONENT CONTINUES

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - The lawsuit between marijuana activist Lanny
Swerdlow and marijuana opponent Paul Chabot continued this week in
court with lengthy testimony from Chabot, who said the activist pushed
him.

"I remember feeling a forearm, a fist, not as a punch but as a push,
and the line of a box," Chabot, president of the Coalition for a Drug
Free California, testified Wednesday in West Valley Superior Court.

At the time, Swerdlow was holding a box in front of his body, Chabot
said.

In testimony on Tuesday, Swerdlow said he walked around Chabot and
maintained that he didn't touch Chabot.

Swerdlow's suit against Chabot seeks punitive damages of $1 million,
alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. Chabot, who filed a
counter-suit, claims Swerdlow battered him, which Swerdlow denies, and
is asking for attorney's fees.

Swerdlow said he is representing himself in the case because he spent
three or four months trying to find an attorney and it didn't pan out.

In 2008, Swerdlow was found not guilty after being accused of battery
against Chabot at an Inland Valley Drug Free Coalition meeting in
Rancho Cucamonga a year earlier.

The activist attended the meeting in Rancho Cucamonga, saying he
wanted to listen before passing out fliers in support of medical
marijuana but was later arrested for allegedly assaulting Chabot, who
denied him entry to the public event.

This week, Chabot and Swerdlow clashed over what happened at the 2007
meeting.

"I did not want them to enter," said Chabot about Swerdlow and Martin
Victor, who testified on Tuesday.

Victor said he decided to go to the meeting after hearing about it
from Swerdlow.

Chabot said Victor at one point pulled up his sleeve to show him a
sizable marijuana leaf tattoo on his forearm.

"Did you ask him to show it to you?" Chabot's attorney, Andrew Haynal,
asked his client.

"No, I did not. Everything happened so fast," Chabot
said.

Chabot also denied making the statement "we don't want your kind
here," which Swerdlow said Tuesday he had made.

"No," Chabot said when Haynal asked if he made the comment before the
alleged shoving incident.

On Tuesday, Victor had said he asked Chabot if he carried a gun
because he thought he saw him holding one but it actually was a cell
phone.

Chabot said Wednesday that Victor's comment "made me afraid. And
cautious."

Chabot said he called 9-1-1 after the confrontation with
Swerdlow.

Both sides have rested their cases. Closing arguments are expected
Tuesday afternoon.
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