LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A group of medical marijuana patients has served a temporary restraining order against the county of Lake in an effort to stop enforcement of Measure N, the county rules for medical marijuana cultivation voters passed in June.
The complaint was filed in federal court on Friday by a number of named and unnamed plaintiffs who are seeking a preliminary injunction.
The plaintiff group includes 60-year-old patient Mona Allen, who was growing six mature plants, 66-year-old patient Paul Ray Harris who was growing nine plants and 70-year-old patient Nina Faye Sikes who, together with her elderly husband, was growing 14 immature plants.
Defendants are the county of Lake, Sheriff Francisco Rivero, Undersheriff Chris Macedo, Lt. Loren Freeman of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Community Development Director Rick Coel and 50 unnamed individuals.
County Counsel Anita Grant said a hearing on the temporary restraining order request was held Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco.
She said the judge did not make a decision Tuesday, but instead took the matter under submission.
The case is alleging that the Lake County Sheriff's Office – which is responsible for enforcing Measure N – has been conducting unconstitutional raids on properties around the county without search warrants or abatement notices required under code enforcement law.
The plaintiffs claim violations of their state and federal constitutional rights, which protect against unlawful search and seizure, invasion of privacy and a denial of due process.
They also allege sheriff's personnel are ignoring patients’ refusal to search their property and prying open locked gates to gain access.
County officials have denied forcing their way into properties without consent.
In their declarations, Allen, Nina Sikes and her husband Elvin Sikes – all Clearlake Oaks residents – said their grows were eradicated by county officials on Aug. 1.
Allen said she was not at home at the time, and that law enforcement passed through two fences – prying one of them open – in order to get to the six mature and six immature plants she and her husband were growing on their one-acre parcel.
Elvin Sikes, who with his wife Nina had 14 immature plants on their half-acre parcel, alleged that law enforcement “burst through two closed fences without my consent” before chopping down the plants.
“I was at home at the time of the raid, but I did not voluntarily consent to any search or seizure,” Elvin Sikes said in his declaration.
“Although this case is about medical marijuana patients being unfairly targeted, it’s more about privacy and property interests that should be protected by the state and federal constitutions,” said Joe Elford, a San Francisco-based lawyer and chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, who is working with attorney Jeremy Blank on behalf of the plaintiffs. “The county is not above the law, and it has an obligation to respect people’s constitutional rights when carrying out local policy.”
Last December, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Ordinance No. 2997, which bans outdoor cultivation in community growth boundaries; limits plant numbers on parcels larger than one acre outside of community growth boundaries to six mature or 12 immature plants; prevents grows on vacant parcels; limits indoor grows to 100 square feet or less; keeps outdoor cultivation 1,000 feet from schools, parks or other facilities serving children, and 100 feet from water bodies; allows collective grows not exceeding 48 mature plants or 72 immature plants on agriculture-zoned parcels of 20 acres or more; and makes the Lake County Sheriff's Office responsible for enforcement.
The ordinance ended up going on the June 3 ballot due to a successful referendum, with voters approving it 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent.
Measure N went into effect July 11, 10 days after the Board of Supervisors approved the final election results for June 3.
Last month, local officials – assisted by Freeman – conducted enforcements in the Spring Valley area.
During a Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 19, Freeman estimated 30 properties had been inspected in that community.
At that same meeting, Allen and a number of growers complained to the board about the enforcements and promised to sue.
Elford previously sued the county in Lake County Superior Court over its temporary medical marijuana cultivation rules in 2012.
That ordinance allowed for up to six plants to be grown outdoors on a half acre or less, 12 plants on parcels of half an acre to one acre, 18 plants on parcels one to five acres in size, 36 plants on five- to 40-acre parcels, and a maximum of 48 plants on parcels 40 acres and larger.
In that case, Elford argued those limits were not enough to satisfy the plaintiffs' medical needs.
In August 2012 Elford's three clients received a preliminary injunction which ran out at the end of that year.
The case was dropped in June 2013 before the permanent injunction stage and about a month after the California Supreme Court issued a decision in the City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc., which upheld the land use planning powers of local governments.
A local judge later denied Elford more than $150,000 in attorney's fees in the case.
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