{"id":17043,"date":"2017-06-12T15:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T23:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2017\/06\/12\/prosecutor-charges-marijuana-business-attorney\/"},"modified":"2017-06-14T22:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T06:27:08","slug":"prosecutor-charges-marijuana-business-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2017\/06\/12\/prosecutor-charges-marijuana-business-attorney\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor Charges Marijuana Business Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An attorney who successfully returned money seized from a dispensary owner has now been changed with criminal action. The case is being called \u201cvindictive prosecution.\u201d It appeared Bonnie Dumanis had lost. As San Diego\u2019s district attorney, Dumanis had seized more than $324,000 from a local medical marijuana distributor during a January 2016 raid. But in May, with no charges filed against James Slatic, the operation\u2019s owner, and no indication any charges were coming after almost a year and a half, a judge ordered Dumanis to return $100,000 seized from the personal bank accounts of Slatic and his family. The money was expected within 10 days. For Dumanis, who is exiting the post on July 7 following a rare decision to resign mid-term, it would be an embarrassing footnote on her career. Instead, within two weeks, Dumanis filed criminal charges after all \u2014 not only against the owners and employees of Med-West, a dispensary that operated in Kearny Mesa until the raid, but against Med-West\u2019s attorney, Jessica McElfresh. As the San Diego Union Tribune reported, Dumanis alleges McElfresh conspired to conceal \u201cevidence of illegal activities,\u201d by making sure that manufacturing equipment used at the dispensary was removed prior to a city inspection. According to the criminal complaint, Med-West distributed more than $3 million worth of illegally manufactured hash oil across the country \u2014 charges that Dumanis said took 16 months to emerge because she wanted to \u201cget it right,\u201d she told the newspaper. But for most observers, the curious timing \u2014 right after Dumanis was ordered to give Slatic his money back \u2014 is tell-tale evidence of a \u201cvindictive prosecution\u201d filed to escape the ignominy of returning money to a medical cannabis seller, and an ominous warning from prosecutors to all other marijuana defense attorneys: if you win, we\u2019ll make sure you lose. McElfresh has declined to comment on the story, and she may practice law in the meantime while the charges against her are pending. Since admitting guilt in a criminal case would likely mean punishment from the state bar association \u2014 up to and including losing the ability to practice \u2014 observers say that McElfresh will likely take the case to trial, a process that could take more than a year. In the meantime, however, having a criminal charge hanging over her head may make it difficult for her to obtain new clients. And the chilling effect is likely to extend to other attorneys who handle marijuana cases. \u201cThis is clearly a vindictive prosecution arising from the court\u2019s order that they return the seized funds,\u201d said Henry Wykowski, a former federal prosecutor who is now general counsel to the National Cannabis Industry Association, in comments to MJBizDaily. \u201cAs bad as that is in and of itself, this is clearly calculated to send a chill to the attorneys that defend cannabis businesses, that they can become targets.\u201d \u201cThis is just not proper.\u201d McElfresh\u2019s client, Med-West, distributed cannabis oils and other products to other dispensaries in the San Diego area, which\u2026
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\nRead More: Prosecutor Charges Marijuana Business Attorney<\/a><\/p>\n

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