Marijuana Farmers Claim 'Mendocino Shakedown' In Plant Seizures, Restitution Fee System
UKIAH (KPIX 5) -- Owners of medical marijuana farms say law enforcement is running amok in Mendocino County, with police seizing plants and other assets on private property in commando-style raids - without a search warrant - and making their agencies millions in the process.
Recently, Mickey Bailey completed his first harvest of marijuana on land he bought in Mendocino County two years ago to grow medical pot. Last year was a bust, literally.
He said armed commandos dropped from the sky and chopped down his garden, even though he says he was growing only 25 plants, the legal limit in the county. "They had no badges, they were in black, the helicopter was not marked. There was no indication of law enforcement at all," said Bailey.
Dozens of other growers say the same thing happened to them, like Susan Schindler, who we interviewed shortly after the raid last year. "There was no paperwork, no copies of any warrants," she said.
Rumors ran rampant in the woods of Mendocino County. Was it guns for hire? Possibly a local private security firm? After all, without warrants, how could it be someone from the police department or the sheriff's office?
Law enforcement officials said they don't always need or use search warrants. "There is a doctrine known as the open field doctrine," said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.
According to Allman, the law affords you privacy in your home and its immediate surroundings. But beyond that, even if it's your own property, you have no right to privacy. "If it's not clearly associated to a house or to a residence then they have the legal authority to eradicate it," he said.
"When you have judicial oversight then you have got to file those reports with the court as opposed to just filing them internally. I mean aren't you in some ways asking the public to just trust that you will do the right thing in those cases?" we asked him. His response: "No, I am telling the public that we are complying with the law."
"It happens so often that it's called a rip and run," said defense attorney Omar Figueroa. Without a warrant, there is no judicial oversight, creating a system that's ripe for abuse, said Figueroa. "When we read the police reports, there is a big discrepancy between what was actually seized and what's reported in the police reports," he said.
Figueroa said it's part of what's known as the "Mendocino Shakedown." The local district attorney will reduce felony marijuana cultivation charges to a misdemeanor in exchange for a per-plant restitution fee, which goes to the law enforcement agency. "The greater the numbers the more money they get," said Figueroa.
Schindler ended up paying $11,000 in restitution for 161 plants, even though she insists she was growing only 75, the county legal limit on the three parcels of land she owns.
We learned through an open records request that the lion's share of the restitution funds go to the Sheriff's Department - more than $3.5 million over the last two years.
So we asked Sheriff Allman: "There are some critics who say that it appears that perhaps the Major Crimes Task Force, the Sheriff's Department is now more interested in prosecuting or investigating marijuana offenses, because they are lucrative." His response: "They are wrong! So what else is there to say?"
As for Bailey, he was never even charged. "Someone dropped into my land, damaged my property, and then left, with no warrants," he said. "It's just, ahhh … it's horrific."
It's made him all the more determined to get back in business. And so far this year, so good.
The sheriff promised to give us a breakdown of what the money was spent on, but we never heard back.
Meanwhile, tales of masked commandos and unmarked helicopters are urban myths, said Allman, because both the task force and his deputies always clearly identify themselves.
