After A Dawn Raid, Health And Probation Officials Tell About 40 Drug And Alcohol Offenders They Must Leave The Santa Ana Apartments. County health care and probation officials removed dozens of recovering substance abusers from two Santa Ana facilities over the weekend, alleging the operator of the programs, Cooper Fellowship Inc., was no longer fit to handle such cases. "At this particular point, it is no longer an approved program from the Probation Department's perspective," said John Robinson, the agency's chief officer. [continues 424 words]
Defendants are named in an alleged smuggling and money-laundering scheme based in O.C. A deputy D.A. also once faced charges. Federal prosecutors have named three additional defendants in a drug-smuggling case that at one point included an Orange County deputy district attorney accused of providing sensitive law enforcement information to the leader of the alleged crime ring. Donovan J. Pantastico, Louis T. Ferreira Jr. and Troy Eugene Lopp are the latest defendants in a case that prosecutors described as an elaborate drug and money-laundering scheme based in Orange County. [continues 208 words]
Courts: Judges fail to rule on Prop. 215 claim of O.C. defendant that he was distributing the drug only for medical purposes. The first Orange County resident to try to use Proposition 215's medicinal-marijuana provisions as a defense to drug sale charges has won an appeals court reversal of his conviction. But in ordering a new trial for David Lee Herrick, the state Court of Appeal in Santa Ana did not address whether he had been improperly denied a defense under Proposition 215. [continues 509 words]
Courts: Advocates of medicinal use urged leniency for Marvin Chavez, but his past crimes are cited in ruling out probation. Despite impassioned pleas for leniency from advocates of medicinal marijuana use, a judge on Friday sentenced the founder of an Orange County cannabis club to six years in prison for selling and transporting the drug. The stiff sentence caps a closely watched case that focused attention on the issue of who is entitled to legal protection under Proposition 215, the state's medicinal marijuana initiative passed two years ago. [continues 657 words]
In a case being closely watched by marijuana activists across Southern California, an Orange County jury Thursday convicted the co-founder of a local cannabis club of selling the drug, but the verdicts fell short of a full victory sought by prosecutors. The jury of six women and six men took just over a day to convict Marvin Chavez, 42, in a case that could clarify who is entitled to the legal protection that a care-giver is allowed under Proposition 215, the state's medicinal marijuana initiative passed two years ago. [continues 770 words]
In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in Orange County, a woman accused of killing her baby through breast milk tainted with methamphetamine pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony child endangerment. Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey sentenced Cynthia Ann Pinson, 39, of Orange to four years in prison. With time served while awaiting trial, Pinson will have about 16 months left of her sentence to serve, Deputy Public Defender Marne Glass said. Pinson was arrested in January after an autopsy determined that her 6-week-old son, Robert Henry Sage, who died two years ago, had methamphetamine in his body. She had been missing for months before surrendering to authorities. She also faced a felony charge of involuntary negotiated a settlement with Glass and her client Tuesday, the day trial was scheduled to begin. "We made the decision to use the court's time wisely," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Henderson, who added that a trial conviction on either or both counts would have added only two to three years to Pinson's sentence. Even if Pinson were convicted on both felony counts, by law she could not be sentenced for both because the charges arise from the same act. With her plea, Pinson recognized endangering her child but did not admit that her action led to his death. Henderson said similar cases have been tried in other jurisdictions. "Because methamphetamine is a newly popular drug, we are seeing more cases like this," she said. Det. Michael Harper of the Orange Police Department testified during preliminary hearings that Pinson originally denied using alcohol or illegal drugs. [continues 170 words]
