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  1. A Summary of the People v. Brown and Paul by Rich Donald, San Luis Obispo chapter of Americans for Safe Access
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  5. In a ruling last week Judge Trice stated “Is a historic ruling for San Luis Obispo County, the first of its kind I believe, that I'm sure will have a large repercussions on currently ongoing trials” two defendants Steve Brown and Deip Paul have been found not guilty of the charges of possession, possession with intent to sell, transportation, and conspiracy to sell marijuana.
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  9. In February 2009 Diep Paul, 19 yr old Bio-Engineering major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo returned home at 3:00 in the morning to find 2-3 adult males in the process of burglarizing his apartment. Mr. Paul pulled the ski mask off one of his assailant’s faces before being choked unconscious. When Mr. Paul came to, he called the San Luis Police Department.
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  13. The officer on the scene took Mr. Paul’s statement but said “It smells like marijuana in here, do you have a card?” Mr. Paul said he had a recommendation from a doctor and offered to show it to the officer. The officer said it was not necessary, and left forgetting to acquire the single piece of evidence of the burglary and assault left at the scene…. The ski mask.
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  17. The officer then went to the Narcotics Task Force and reported that there was an apartment near the college that smelled strongly of marijuana. With the approval of Rodney John of the Department of Justice (The same Rodney John who initiated a county wide sting of delivery services in Dec. 2010 utilizing over 50 officers in a three month long investigation.) a 24 hour a day, 2 week long surveillance of Mr. Paul’s activities began.
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  21. Deip Paul had suffered severe migraines since childhood and was a heavy user of medical marijuana, it did not stop him from achieving A and B grades in one of the most difficult majors, in one of the most prestigious technical schools in the country.
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  25. Mr. Paul had been meeting with a popular out of county vendor who supplied 9 collectives in southern California and 3 collectives in northern California named Steve Brown.
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  29. Mr. Brown had just completed long drive to Los Angeles where he had collected overdue consignment fees from the Green Dragon Dispensary and a number of other collectives. Though he was tired from his full day, he agreed to meet Deip at 11:00 PM behind a hotel in Kettelman City California.
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  33. 15 minutes after their meeting both were detained by representatives of six law enforcement agencies. Mr. Paul was found to possess 3 lbs of marijuana while Mr. Brown was found to possess $61,500.00 in cash, and 5 lbs of marijuana.
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  37. A search warrant was issued to search Mr. Paul’s apartment, and a neighbor’s apartment, owned by Cory Wolin, where Paul had been observed visiting regularly. More cannabis was found, and in Wilton’s apartment a pay out sheet in his handwriting, baggies, and scales were also found.
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  41. Mr. Wilton quickly secretly agreed to turn states evidence against Deip Paul, and act as an informant for a reduction of his charges and preferential treatment.
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  45. Mr. Paul contacted Medical Marijuana specialist Attorney J. David Nick (http://jdavidnick.com/ ), while Brown retained the services of Jay Leiderman, a noted speaker for NORML (national organization for) and co-author of the recent NORML publication “Medical Marijuana Law in California” (http://leidermandevine.com/ht_docs/medicalmarijuana_book.php)
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  49. Two weeks ago, after two and a half years of motions, delays, and instructions trial finally got underway. During the trial Mr. Paul’s father, a highly successful engineer and division manager working for Intel took the stand. He stated that in India there were study rooms on every floor of their dorms of his college and everyone smoked ganja in the study rooms while studying. The prosecutor Mr. Cunningham asked “weren’t there campus police that would stop this?” the Senior Mr. Paul stated “ well… no, In India the students smoke ganja because it clears their minds and allows in the new material they have learned, the Professors smoke it, the police smoke it to help them relax, in India even the goddess Shiva smokes it…. EVERYONE IN INDIA SMOKES GANJA!” Deip’s father had to yell the last part as the audience; court officers, attorneys, and jury (everyone except the DA’s) were struck with uncontrollable giggles.
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  53. When the becoming infamous Rodney Johns was called to take the stand by the prosecution and asked by the defense: “Are you the one responsible for the stings in December against these delivery services?” he cheerfully said “yup that was me,” defense asked… “You tied up 50 cops, for three months…. For what?” “I read the Rand report, and it stated that the cost of producing one ounce of marijuana is $38.00, and they were selling it for way more than that and making a profit, so they were criminals who deserve to go to jail.”
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  57. Every officer called upon related that they did not take any steps to confirm the medical conditions of Deip Paul or Steve Brown, and further that they had received no training in regards to medical marijuana law. Most had never read section 11362.5 of the health and safety code, and prior to the beginning of trial even the investigating officer Pierce (the same Officer Pierce who was the undercover officer in December) had never read the attorney general’s guidelines though he has engaged in many operations targeting medical marijuana providers.
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  61. At one point in his four and a half hour testimony, Mr. Brown claimed that though there was no paperwork, no business license, no signed agreement, Paul and himself had agreed to form a private collective, and it was asserted that through the law itself, this was completely within the bounds of the compassionate use act.
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  65. During Mr. Nick’s closing arguments, he responded to the prosecution's request of the jury to ignore the expert “so called” scientific testimony of Doctor’s. Bearman and Conrad and instead rely upon “common sense.” To which Mr. Nick replied was “Like ignoring the scientific evidence that the earth is round”.
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  69. During summation, the prosecution asserted that “if any two people could form a collective with no paperwork or acceptable standards, the Compassionate Use Act essentially legalized all marijuana transactions in the state assuming both parties have a doctor’s note!”
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  73. During the defense closing arguments, Mr. Leiderman’s response was… “So after reading through the actual law, and noting any association between two patients for the purpose of providing for their mutual medical needs constitutes a ‘collective association’, weather you like it or not, the answer is yes… it did essentially legalize all transactions between valid medical marijuana patients.”
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  77. Finally Mr. Cunningham rested with “This case boils down to you the jury deciding on if three pounds of marijuana constitutes a ‘reasonable’ amount for personal medical use.”
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  81. With less than two hours of deliberation, the answer was a resounding yes, not guilty for both defendants on all charges. Mr. Wolin served a two month long prison sentence, and may have his status reduced from a convicted felony to a misdemeanor in three years, if he adheres to his probation and passes all drug tests.
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  85. It could be said that the iron curtain of medical marijuana rejection and discrimination that exists between Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County is beginning to come down.
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  89. Further we can hope with this decision that the remaining victims of Mr. John’s ill-informed misdirected and biased crusade against lawful patients and their providers, who are currently still fighting for their lives and reputations the courts of San Luis Obispo, may soon have their charges dropped.
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  93. This would not return the millions of tax dollars that have already been wasted on 3 month long 50 officer surveillance operations, court proceedings that have already lasted years, or the hundreds of thousands of dollars the accused have lost in missed work or paid to defend themselves.
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  97. The times, they are a changing in SLO County and I along with many others are very glad.
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  101. Personally I wish to thank all the members of the Jury, the activists of ASA, and Human Solution who filled the audience during closing arguments, the defense attorneys for their rational arguments and clear thinking, and foremost the defendants and their families for having the will and perseverance to reject the plea bargains and fight for what’s right regardless of how the opposition wished to demonize them.
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  104. The newspaper article is located here: http://www.newtimesslo.com/news/6630/the-age-of-reason/
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  106. Posted but not written by:
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  108. JAY LEIDERMAN
  109. CERTIFIED CRIMINAL LAW SPECIALIST
  110. CALIFORNIA BAR BOARD OF LEGAL SPECIALIZATION
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  112. LEIDERMAN DEVINE LLP
  113. 5740 RALSTON STREET SUITE #300
  114. VENTURA, CALIFORNIA 93003
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  116. TEL: (805) 654 0200 ext.24
  117. FAX: (805) 654 0280
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  119. EMAIL: jay@leidermandevine.com
  120. WEB: www.leidermandevine.com
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  122. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @LEIDERMANDEVINE
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