LAKE COUNTY >> The Lake County District Attorney’s Office dropped all of its marijuana-related charges against District 4 Supervisor candidate Phil Murphy last week as prosecutors felt that obtaining a conviction would be unlikely.
“We want to take cases to trial that we know the person is guilty,” District Attorney Don Anderson said. “We still believe he committed the crime, except we don’t feel like we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The charges — unlawful cultivation, possession for purpose of sale and unlawful transport — stemmed from the discovery of more than 20 pounds of processed marijuana and about 11 pounds of bulk shake in Murphy’s possession of at the time of the arrest of Murphy and his girlfriend, Denise Carr, in November. Despite Murphy’s evidence that his stash was for the six patients he grew for and in line with Measure N, the sheriff’s office and the DA’s office felt the amount was more than what was medically necessary, thus violating state law.
Two patients attracted the attention of authorities. According to Anderson, those patients admitted that they had already picked up their product before the pot was seized.
However, Murphy’s defense was able to produce the prescriptions, which the Record-Bee previously reported were confiscated during the raid.
Because of this, prosecutors decided to drop the charge.
“It was the appropriate decision for the prosecution to do once they believed they couldn’t prove their case,” Murphy’s attorney Mitchell Hauptman said, adding that it was made relatively early.
Murphy alleges the case dragged on longer than it should because the DA’s office knew about this evidence since the arrest. He further argued his innocence by noting that he made the Lake County Sheriff’s Office aware of his grow with previous email correspondence and when deputies investigated a burglary a short time before his arrest.
“If I’m committing major felonies why would I invite the cops over to my house?” the farmer said. “I trusted [them] to do the right thing.”
He also has issue with the pot that was seized from his house and destroyed. According to him, ten pounds of marijuana was destroyed and because of this he will be expecting a reimbursement of about $20,000 along with the rest of the pot and the guns that were taken.
“The county really owes us,” he said.
This was not confirmed by the county.
There was also damage to his and Carr’s reputations, he added, alleging that she was lost her job as a result.
“I’ve grown thousands of tons of food for people; I’ve shipped all over the world,” he said. “My concern is getting my reputation back…to be characterized as some criminal pot grower doesn’t sit right with me.”
