Pubdate: Wed, 23 Apr 2014
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Note: Does not publish letters from outside their circulation area.
Author: Marc Benjamin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

JUDGE WAITS TO MAKE DECISION ON FRESNO COUNTY MARIJUANA GROWING BAN

A Fresno County Superior Court judge will consider arguments heard 
Tuesday before ruling on a Fresno County medical marijuana 
cultivation ordinance that will impose heavy fines on its first 
violators in the next few days.

Judge Bruce Smith said he expects a ruling by the first week of May. 
He initially had difficulties with the legal filing and said there 
should have been two separate filings, an injunction and an appeal.

But Smith said he was not "altogether unsympathetic" with the 
Holapatiphone family, which was fined $43,000 by Fresno County 
supervisors in noncriminal penalties after 43 medical marijuana 
plants were discovered without a search warrant by Fresno County 
sheriff's deputies in February. The Fresno County ordinance bans any 
marijuana cultivation, even if it's for medical purposes.

"You certainly have every right to appeal" the county ban, Smith said.

Lawyer Brenda Linder had sought a temporary restraining order 
stopping the county from excessively fining the Holapatiphones.

She said the county could begin demanding fine payments within a week.

Linder said her client, Phaeth Holapatiphone, would have been better 
off financially facing a criminal case.

She said the case has less to do with medical marijuana cultivation 
than with due process and excessive fines under the state government 
code and U.S. Constitution.

Within a year, she said, the interest alone -- 10% per month -- will 
exceed the original fine.

Orange County lawyer Jeffrey Dunn, who was retained to defend the 
county's ordinance, said the ordinance is lawful and that Linder's 
clients are angry because they were caught.

"They just don't like the ordinance," Dunn told the judge. "They 
don't like the fact that it has an administrative fine, or a per diem 
assessment penalty or all the things this ordinance does to abate a 
public nuisance."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom