SF JUDGE FUELS YUBA POT FIGHT

Marijuana Issue Gets Another Opinion

While Yuba County's medical marijuana standoff continued Thursday, a San
Francisco judge, ruling in another case, said pot should not be returned.

"I believe I am doing the right thing by refusing to violate federal law,"
said Sheriff Virginia Black in not following a judge's order to release
marijuana in her department's possession. "I can't in good conscience do that."

Meanwhile, Yuba City lawyer Justin Scott said his "position hasn't changed
one iota. We get the marijuana back, or we force the issue with her."

Scott represents Doyle Satterfield, who along with his wife, Belinda,
thought they could retrieve their medical marijuana earlier this week after
Judge James Curry said it should be released.

Black refused to turn over the pot on Tuesday.

"We're trying to work out a compromise," Scott said without giving details.

"We don't want to have her put in her own jail," he said. "She may leave us
with no choice."

Scott had set a Thursday deadline for Black to release the pot - 37 plants
and 41/2 pounds of dried material.

County Counsel Dan Montgomery declined to comment.

The Satterfields were arrested last August and the marijuana seized.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in January after the couple proved they
needed the marijuana for their ailments.

"My personal opinion about marijuana doesn't even enter into this fray,"
Black said. "Whether I believe Proposition 215 should have been passed is
not the issue. I work to uphold the law, and that's what I intend to do -
federal law, state law and local ordinances."

Scott disagreed, saying the sheriff "is a local law enforcement official
charged with enforcing state law. She's not a federal agent."

The attorney said he's "not trying to inflame this situation any more than
necessary. I don't understand her position, to tell you the truth. Does she
honestly believe the feds are going to prosecute her if she complies with a
court order?"

Politically, Black may have a majority of county residents on her side in
what she dubbed the "standoff at the Yuba corral."

In November 1996, Proposition 215, which allowed medical marijuana in
California, won with 55.6 percent of the vote statewide.

But in Yuba County, 54 percent of voters rejected the measure.

"It isn't that I want to make anyone angry or upset people's apple cart,"
Black said. "I certainly don't need all this attention in my life. There
are enough things going on in Yuba County that occupy my time."

In San Francisco this week, Superior Court Judge Wallace Douglass, ruling
in a medical marijuana case, said the Police Department should not hand
over the drugs.

The judge had initially ordered police to return 11/2 ounces of pot and two
vials of hashish oil seized during an arrest.

But on Wednesday, the judge changed his mind after hearing from a Police
Department lawyer, who contended that turning over the drugs violates
federal law.

"I think we were very clear, and he reversed himself," said Inspector
Sherman Ackerson, a Police Department spokesman.

"Until the law is changed, if you have drugs and you're going to attract
police attention and you're going to get arrested for misconduct, you can
expect those drugs, especially contraband, to be confiscated and not
released," he said.

In San Francisco, Ackerson said, "If you're drunken driving, smoking dope
and get pulled over by a cop, don't hold up your medical marijuana card as
some sort of get out of jail free card. It's not going to work."