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May 14, 1998 Dave Herrick, of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op, was found guilty of two felony counts of "sales" of marijuana. He was found not guilty of two other counts of sales because the jury said there wasn't enough evidence.
During testimony, the defense presented three witnesses -- a patient, a caregiver, and DA investigator Andy Pedrosa. Both the patient and caregiver could not say that they ever received cannabis from or donated money to Dave. They did acknowledge that he was present when the transactions took place, though.
During their testimony, they both said that investigator Pedrosa harassed them and tried to put words they didn't say in to their mouths. When Public Defender Sharon Petrosino questioned Andy Pedrosa, she caught him in several lies and inconsistencies. He changed dates of transactions and in his notes and reports. He asked leading questions to try to evoke the response he wanted. He lied under oath about what was said in recorded interviews, and Petrosino brought those lies out with transcripts of interviews.
The defense was stifled when they weren't allowed to use a Proposition 215 or medical necessity defense. Evidence of medical use was heard throughout the trial in testimony that the patient and caregiver were obtaining it for medical use, and they were doing what they thought was legal under Proposition 215.
Petrosino called for a mistrial during closing arguments when DA Carl Armbrust said she should have subpoenaed donation receipts if she wanted to prove Dave wasn't guilty of "sales" on the dates alleged. The judge denied her request. What the jury didn't know is that Petrosino already had the receipts, but wasn't allowed to submit them.
Judge Froeberg did not allow any evidence to be seen by the jury that related to Proposition 215, virtually eliminating all evidence Petrosino had to submit. Stickers from cannabis baggies stating "Not for sale," a club ID card, and a doctor's note could not be seen by the jury.The jury came out after about an hour of deliberations to ask the judge why they weren't allowed to consider Proposition 215 in deciding the verdict. Judge Froeberg said that 215 covers possession and use, but not sales. The jury deliberated for about two more hours before coming up with the two guilty verdicts.
After the hearing, Armbrust was asked how much cannabis a patient could have or grow to avoid being prosecuted by him. His answer was, "I don't know." He said 215 was a badly written law and it didn't specify how much a patient could have. When asked how he decides to prosecute someone who is a patient, and if he just randomly picks them and says, "This one should be prosecuted, this one shouldn't," etc., he answered, "Yep." He also said that no medical cannabis patient is being prosecuted anywhere in the state.Dave is facing a minimum of three years in jail. Sentencing will be on Friday, June 26. Petrosino plans to file an appeal.
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