Pot dispenser suing Modesto

Modesto Bee
March 5, 2008

Pot dispenser suing Modesto
By SUSAN HERENDEEN

A Modesto man who managed a medical marijuana dispensary on McHenry
Avenue is suing the city, saying local authorities conspired with the
federal government to shut down a lucrative business that raked in $6
million in less than two years.

Luke Scarmazzo, formerly the treasurer and secretary of California
Healthcare Collective, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Stanislaus County
Superior Court, seeking compensation for emotional distress, mental
anguish and the loss of a job that paid him $13,000 a month.

Scarmazzo said he cooperated with local officials even as the City
Council sought to ban pot clubs, turning over business records to show
that everything was on the up and up. In return, he said, the city
shared information with federal authorities, who shuttered the
dispensary after a September 2006 raid.

In his lawsuit, Scarmazzo claims that the city worked in concert with
the federal Drug Enforcement Agency so it could close the business
without compensating its owners. He wants the city to pay the fair
market value of the dispensary at the time it was closed -- $3.8 million.

"This was something that was legal in our state," Scarmazzo said during
a recent interview with former business partner Ricardo Montes and
defense attorney Robert Forkner.

The lawsuit is an offshoot of a criminal case against Scar- mazzo,
Montes and four others who face federal drug trafficking charges and are
scheduled for trial April 15 in U.S. District Court in Fresno.
Scarmazzo, 27, is free on $400,000 bail. Montes, 27, is free on $250,000
bail.

The dispensary operators said city officials negotiated in bad faith,
because they said they wanted to shut the business down after a
six-month amortization period, but were collecting information that
fueled a federal investigation.

The extent of cooperation between city and federal officials is unclear,
but in a letter to Scarmazzo's attorney last spring, Senior Deputy City
Attorney David Cervantes acknowledged communications between local and
federal officials.

Calls to the city attorney's office were not returned Tuesday.

The dispensary was a hot topic at City Council meetings in 2005 and
2006, with officials passing two zoning ordinances aimed at banning such
businesses.

The federal drug raid came only five days after city officials conceded
that they could not outlaw the nonprofit California Healthcare
Collective, which had a three-year lease that ran until Jan. 20, 2008.

Scarmazzo and Montes said they sought legal advice, obtained a business
license, paid state and federal taxes, and made sure every patient had a
note from a doctor before they could purchase any marijuana.

But a 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court said a 1996 initiative that
legalized marijuana for medical uses in California does not shield
people from federal prosecution.

Since then, 90 dispensaries across the state have been raided, with
criminal charges filed in about half of those cases, according to
Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based medical marijuana advocacy
group.

Most dispensary owners are hit with conspiracy and money laundering
charges, but Scarmazzo and Montes are accused of something far more
serious. The U.S. attorney's office has charged the two men with
engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a sentence
of 20 years to life.

Only two charged in country

Scarmazzo said he thinks he and his partner have been singled out
because he released a rap-style music video called "Business Man" only
one month before his arrest. In that video, Scarmazzo flashes wads of
cash and shakes his fist at a mock-up of the City Council.

Forkner agrees. "These two defendants are the only two defendants in the
country who are facing a continuing criminal enterprise charge," he said.

A criminal complaint alleges that the dispensary took in $4.5 million
from December 2004 to June 2006. Forkner said the dispensary generated
$6 million in sales before it closed.

Scarmazzo and Montes referred to themselves as caregivers and said the
marijuana was medicine. Investigators also found more than 1,100
marijuana plants, 13 guns, 60 pounds of processed marijuana and $140,000
in cash in houses associated with the defendants.

As they await trial, Scarmazzo is playing music gigs around the region
and has released a second album, while Montes works a construction job.
Both said they would have done things differently if they had understood
that their business could be viewed as a continuing criminal enterprise.

"If a cease-and-desist order had come to us, we would have definitely
complied," Scarmazzo said. "They came in with guns drawn and arrested
everybody."