Last Of Four Death Suits Dismissed Six years after state agents raided his medical clinic in Anderson, Dr. Frank Fisher's legal problems appear to have ended with the quiet dismissal of the last of four wrongful death suits against him. The dismissal papers were filed late Monday in Shasta County Superior Court and delivered to Fisher's attorneys Tuesday -- the sixth anniversary of his arrest for multiple murders and massive Medi-Cal fraud. "This tells me that those malpractice lawsuits were frivolous, but I knew that all along," Fisher said Tuesday. "I'm just glad it's over." [continues 638 words]
Frank Fisher says he knew his prescription practices had attracted law enforcement's attention the day a purported Medi-Cal patient came to his Westwood Walk-in Clinic and asked for a Vicodin prescription. "I said, 'What's wrong with you?' and he said, 'Nothing,'" Fisher recalled. "I threw the door to my office open and said, 'You need to leave.'" That was in the summer of 1996. Fisher billed Medi-Cal for the visit, a bill that later became part of the original fraud charges filed against him in 1997. [continues 926 words]
In Florida, Dr. James Graves is serving 63 years for manslaughter in the deaths of four patients. In Virginia last year, a doctor was hit with a 313-count indictment after federal prosecutors accused him of having illegally distributed a fortune in OxyContin. A Tucson, Ariz., doctor stands accused of "drug dealing with a pen." And in Virginia, again, a pain treatment specialist faces 49 felony counts, including drug trafficking resulting in death or serious injury, conspiracy and running a criminal enterprise. [continues 993 words]
Just as Frank Fisher's story isn't over, the nightmare that began with the doctor's arrest hasn't ended for his former pain patients. Toni Briano, 40, of Red Bluff still hasn't found a permanent doctor and she's still in pain. Darlene Oakes, who now lives in Sonora, considered suicide at one point. Debbie and Larry Van Meter of Redding spent money the family said it couldn't spare on trips to Oregon, where he finally found treatment. [continues 1291 words]
Doctor And Pharmacy Owners Overcome Charges, Lose Footing There's an old police saying -- "You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride." And the ride is far from over for a doctor and pharmacy owners busted by drug agents almost six years ago in highly publicized dual raids of his Anderson clinic and their Redding drug store. Attorney General Bill Lockyer called a press conference to hail the murder, drug trafficking and Medi-Cal fraud arrests of Dr. Frank Bensell Fisher, pharmacist Stephen Miller and his wife, Madeline. [continues 1601 words]
Almost three years after his acquittal on a charge of growing marijuana for sale, medicinal marijuana user Richard Levin took the witness stand Wednesday to detail his arrest and treatment at the Shasta County Jail. Levin, 52, and his wife, Kim, 38, both of Redding, are suing Shasta County and two sheriff's deputies for wrongful arrest and, in his case, mistreatment at the Redding jail. Earlier defendants in the suit included an unnamed jail doctor and Shasta County District Attorney McGregor Scott, but they were dropped from the suit before testimony began late last week. [continues 847 words]
Man Suspected Of Cultivating Pot Plants Vows He'll Fight Back Disabled trucker and medical marijuana user James Hall is promising a fight against Redding police, who confiscated his crop, food stamps and pictures and arrested him Sunday after searching his house without a warrant. "They've got themselves a battle," Hall said Tuesday, less than 24 hours after a call from his attorney, Eric Berg of Redding, toShasta County Assistant District Attorney Greg Gaul resulted in his release from jail without bail. [continues 774 words]
REDDING -- Disabled trucker and medical marijuana user James Hall is promising a fight against Redding police, who confiscated his crop, food stamps and pictures and arrested him Sunday after searching his house without a warrant. "They've got themselves a battle," Hall said less than 24 hours after a call from his attorney, Eric Berg of Redding, to Shasta County assistant district attorney Greg Gaul resulted in his release from jail without bail. Hall had been jailed in lieu of $10,000 bail since his arrest on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. [continues 457 words]
Attorney Challenges Probation Search That Turns Up Pot Plants A medical marijuana user acquitted of growing 240 pot plants last year was booked into Shasta County Jail, this time after Redding police say they found 20 plants in his back yard. Sunday's arrest of James B. Hall, 40, of Redding was based on what police said was a probation search. But attorney Eric Berg said Monday that Hall is not on probation, pending his appeal of the charge he was convicted on last year -- conspiracy to cultivate marijuana. [continues 365 words]
Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that federal drug laws make no exceptions for medicinal marijuana use justifies calling federal drug agents to seize pot even if medical users are exonerated in state court, Shasta County District Attorney McGregor Scott said. "They have spoken quite clearly that this (marijuana distribution) is still a violation of federal law, regardless of what California has done" in approving Proposition 215, Scott said. He also said that the opinion validates a controversial decision made by Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope in January 2000 to call federal drug agents rather than obey a Superior Court judge's order to return 41 plants and 22 ounces of processed pot to acquitted medical marijuana user Rick Levin of Redding. [continues 479 words]
Lawsuits Filed By Users And Recalls Targeting District Attorneys Are Growing Lawsuits and legal actions alleging abuses under California's Compassionate Use Act are becoming more common as medical marijuana users continue to balk at what they say are arbitrary rules enforced by local anti-drug warriors. At the same time, more medical marijuana users appear to be fighting criminal charges, rather then settling for reduced charges. Already one district attorney, Paula Kamena of Marin County, faces a May 22 recall election over her allegedly "inhumane" interpretation of Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996. [continues 334 words]
Lawsuits Filed By Users And Recalls Targeting District Attorneys Are Growing. Lawsuits and legal actions alleging abuses under California's Compassionate Use Act are becoming more common as medical marijuana users continue to balk at what they say are arbitrary rules enforced by local anti-drug warriors. At the same time, more medical marijuana users appear to be fighting criminal charges, rather then settling for reduced charges. Already one district attorney, Paula Kamena of Marin County, faces a May 22 recall election over her allegedly "inhumane" interpretation of Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996. [continues 336 words]
Lawsuits and legal actions alleging abuses under California's Compassionate Use Act are becoming more common as medical marijuana users continue to balk at what they say are arbitrary rules enforced by local anti-drug warriors. At the same time, more medical marijuana users appear to be fighting against criminal charges, rather then settling for reduced charges. Already one district attorney, Paula Kamena of Marin County, faces a May 22 recall election over her allegedly "inhumane" interpretation of Proposition 215, approved by voters in 1996. [continues 727 words]
Claiming they maliciously abused the law in searching his house and taking his marijuana plants, a Montgomery Creek man is suing Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope, District Attorney McGregor Scott and two of Pope's deputies. And in a separate action earlier this week, a San Francisco Bay area doctor who writes medical marijuana recommendations filed a $400,000 claim against Shasta County, charging Scott, Pope and other officials retaliated against his medicinal marijuana work by having him hauled before the state medical board last year. [continues 706 words]
Action Seeks Protection For Medical Users A medical marijuana patient's wrongful arrest lawsuit against Shasta County, two sheriff's deputies and a jail doctor was amended Monday to add District Attorney McGregor Scott as a defendant. At the same time, the suit was expanded to become a class-action suit on behalf of all the county's taxpayers and medical marijuana users. The new action asks the court to forbid criminal prosecution or other sanctions for possession or cultivation of marijuana unless it is determined that the suspect is not a medical marijuana user or caregiver. [continues 410 words]
Medicinal marijuana patients are ridiculed, harassed and humiliated in Shasta County, a Redding marijuana advocate complained at Assemblyman Dick Dickerson's town hall meeting Wednesday night. The result is that some very ill people are too frightened to use the treatment they think works best for them, Rick Levin told Dickerson, R-Redding. But though Dickerson acknowledged that he thinks state government should address the medical marijuana issue with more studies, he complained that the state's Compassionate Use Act has "caused a lot of problems because of the way it was drafted." [continues 282 words]
Two Other Men Face Charges In The Same Case A Shasta County Superior Court judge Monday dismissed a marijuana possession charge against an Anderson man who is disabled by skeletal birth defects and uses a wheelchair. "The choice is marijuana or suicide," attorney Janice Mackey told Judge Gregory Caskey of her client, Frank Port, 29, a card-carrying medicinal marijuana user under Proposition 215. As Caskey looked at Port's doctor's recommendation, Senior Deputy District Attorney Brent Ledford asked that the case be dismissed. [continues 322 words]
Sheriff, Undersheriff Are Found Not In Contempt In Plant Case A visiting Superior Court judge refused Friday to re-open contempt of court proceedings against Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope and Undersheriff Larry Schaller. After an hourlong session Trinity County Superior Court Judge John Letton ruled that Redding attorney Eric Berg had offered no new evidence or legal arguments that the sheriff should be punished for allowing a federal drug agent to seize medicinal marijuana another judge had ordered returned to a Redding man. [continues 364 words]
Crowd wants authorities to honor Proposition 215 About 200 medical marijuana users and their supporters drew cheers and waves, honks and peace signs from drivers Friday as they demonstrated on Cypress Avenue for almost an hour before a brief rally on the steps of Redding's new Civic Center. Toting handmade placards touting Proposition 215, the state's voter-approved Compassionate Use Act, the crowd began assembling before 10 a.m. at South City Park, two blocks south of the Civic Center. [continues 485 words]
Redding attorney Eric Berg is asking a Trinity County Superior Court judge to reconsider contempt of court allegations against Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope and Undersheriff Larry Schaller. Berg contends that visiting Judge John Letton's March 29 dismissal of the case failed to address key issues in the contempt case -- specifically ''Schaller's and Pope's dishonesty and deceit'' in failing to return medicinal marijuana to a Redding man acquitted of marijuana cultivation. On Jan. 14 Shasta County Superior Court Judge Bradley Boeckman ordered the marijuana returned to Berg's client, Richard Levin, 49. But when Berg and Levin went to retrieve the dead plants and 11/2 pounds of processed pot Jan. 21, sheriff's deputies told them a federal agent had seized it. [continues 372 words]
