By BEN BROWN/The Daily Journal
Article Last Updated: 02/26/2008 10:22:17 AM PST
Memo Parker was arrested on marijuana charges Monday after a search of his Garden's avenue properties revealed close to 300 marijuana plants and more than 30 pounds of dried marijuana.
Ukiah Police Department Officers, working with members of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force served a search warrant on houses at 106 and 130 Garden's Avenue Monday after receiving repeated complaints from Parker's neighbors, said UPD Chief Chris Dewey.
"They had a enough probable cause to serve a search warrant," Dewey said.
Officers seized 297 adult marijuana plants from the house as well as 34 pounds of dried marijuana.
"One house had been completely converted into a grow facility," Dewey said.
Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and cultivation of marijuana.
The house at 130 Gardens Avenue had been completely converted for marijuana processing, Dewey said. Half the rooms were set up to grow marijuana and the other half were being used to dry and process marijuana, Dewey said.
Parker was also growing marijuana in a shed in the back yard of 106 Gardens Avenue next door. Dewey said electricity had been diverted from 130 Gardens Avenue over the fence to power grow lights in the shed. Dewey said there are pending charges of building code violations against Parker from the City of Ukiah because of the electricity diversion.
Dewey said the electricity to 130 Gardens Avenue was shut off by the city Monday because of the electricity diversion.
When confronted by officers, Parker told them he presented one medical marijuana recommendation and said he was growing the marijuana for the Green Cross medical marijuana collective in San Francisco.
"He told the officers he was growing it and selling it," Dewey said.
Under Mendocino County law, a medical marijuana patient can only grow 25 plants per parcel. California State law allows medical marijuana patients to grow medical marijuana for other medical marijuana patients.
This is Parker's second brush with the law over marijuana. In October of 2006, Parker was arrested on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana for sale and possession of marijuana for sale after a search warrant served on the same two Gardens Avenue homes turned up 190 adult marijuana plants, 262 smaller "clone" marijuana plants and 170 pounds of dried marijuana, according to police reports.
Parker's brother, Mark Parker, was also arrested in the October 2006 raid and both were tried on marijuana charges. The trial ended in a hung jury and has been rescheduled for April 21, 2008.
Mark Parker was not arrested Monday.
Measure B - Listen/View online
- WATCH - Measure B debate / MCTV (cable ch 3) -- 05.05.08 - 8:15pm & 05.06.08 - 7:00pm
- LISTEN - Yes on Measure B / KMEC - 04.15.08
- LISTEN - Measure B debate / Ukiah City Council - 04.14.08
- WATCH - Measure B debate / Ukiah City Council - 04.14.08
- LISTEN - Measure B / KZYX - 04.10.08
- LISTEN - No on Measure B / KMEC - 04.08.08
What is Measure B & why is it needed?
Quotes of interest
-- Tom Allman, Mendocino County Sheriff, when speaking on marijuana laws (Press Democrat 06/06/07)
“The citizens of Mendocino County deserve clarity with respect to marijuana cultivation limits and enforcement against abuses...”
-- Laura Hamburg, No on Measure B, (March 12, 2008)
On the question of marijuana & methamphetamine in Mendocino County:
DeVall, Host
“…have you found an interconnectedness?”
Loren, panel member,
“The connections that I’ve seen with methamphetamine and marijuana is…I was doing runs down to the city with pounds of weed to trade straight across for methamphetamine that I was bringing back, so to say ‘yes' it does fund some of the methamphetamines that are coming into this county, because to trade straight across I mean, we’re bringing huge amounts back for no cash. We are just growing weed and trading it…
--- KZYX , The Access Program live interview, Ukiah CA, 03/07/08
Section 9:
School, district and community barriers to improvements in student achievement:
"The prevalent use and societal acceptance of marijuana is a unique challenge to this area."
--- Dennis Willeford, Principal of Ukiah High School, Single Plan for Student Achievement at Ukiah High School report as revised November 7th, 2007 to the Ukiah Unified School District Governing Board.
"Growers have come to Mendocino County from out of state because they erroneously believe it's legal to grow marijuana there."
--- Susan Jordan, Attorney (Press Democrat 06/06/07)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: Memo Parker arrested again on marijuana cultivation charges
Measure B on the June ballot will provide:
The state limit, presently 6 mature plants and 8 ounces of processed marijuana per patient, will replace the higher 25-plant limit that has existed in Mendocino County since 2000. This will stop Mendocino County from being a “magnet" for marijuana growers who move here for quick profit.
-> That Measure G is repealed.
"Measure G ordered the sheriff to make enforcement of all marijuana laws his lowest priority, below even jaywalking. Prosecutions for less than 25 plants “per single case” was prohibited. Measure G discourages law enforcement and the Board of Supervisors from stopping abuses and threats to health and safety. Whenever the County tries to impose any limits on marijuana growing, the “no-limits” marijuana lobby threatens to sue for “violation of Measure G.”
Please send donations to
759 S. State Street #114
Ukiah, CA. 95482
YesOnB@pacific.net
Visit YES on Mendocino County Measure B Coalition for more information
Yes on Measure B - What's Happening?
Vote YES on Mendocino County Measure B
May 19 -
Last day to register to vote YES on Measure B.
Find my polling location. Enter your address and find your polling precinct and location.
Visit the Mendocino County Assessor - County Clerk - Recorder for more information.
May 7 - 7:o0pm
Measure B community forum
Location: Willits Grange.
May 5
Absentee ballots are mailed.
May 3 - 10:30am
Televised Measure B debate Coast League of Women Voters Measure B Community Forum.
Location: St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church, Ft. Bragg.
May 1 - 6:00pm
Televised Measure B debate
Location: Mendocino Coast Television, Ft. Bragg
April 29 - 7:00pm
Anderson Valley Community Action Coalition
Location: Assembly of God - 14500 Highway 128 in Boonville
City Council meeting, City to vote on endorsing Measure B
Location: City Hall.
April 15 - 7:00pm
Ukiah Valley Chamber of Commerce / Candidates night
Location: City Hall.
April 14 - 6:30pm
Yes on Measure B debate
Location: City Hall.
Thank you for your support in
"Saving Mendocino County"
In our opinion
We've been hearing from readers that the level of outrage over marijuana growing in this county is continuing to rise.
The news of search warrants being quashed and pot growers walking away from court back to local neighborhoods to keep growing, of trucks and cars traveling up and down Highway 101 full of pot, of smart attorneys taking advantage of the mess that Measure G made of our county's desire to be fair to pot smokers and compassionate to the sick and dying, is all taking its toll.
When Measure G passed in the year 2000 the headlines in pro-marijuana publications read: "Marijuana growing legalized in Mendocino County, California!"
That is the message we sent to the world. That was not the message intended by many of the people who voted for Measure G back then and it is one we need to reverse by passing Measure B on the ballot in June.
What we're seeing in the news right now is a good example of why Measure B is so necessary. We need to return safety and sanity to our neighborhoods.
But perhaps most importantly Measure B will send a message back out into the world that Mendocino County is no longer the place to move to with your dreams of pulling in six figures a year tax free in a sweet deal made possible by the unwitting voters in Mendocino County who thought they were just giving a few local pot smokers a break.
In the coming weeks you will hear more about Measure B and you will hear from a group now organized to stop Measure B.
Measure B enacts locally the state standards for medical marijuana: six plants per patient. And remember when someone says "only six plants?" that one pot plant can be 10 to 12 feet tall and three to four feet wide. And they can have more immature plants, and they can get a doctor's recommendation if need be for even more. In other words, the state's regulations, developed by physicians committed to helping the sick and dying, concluded that six plants was plenty for any legitimate medical marijuana patient.
They will tell you Measure B criminalizes marijuana and "targets small-scale personal use growers." False.
Measure B simply reverses the excesses of Measure G, which gave everyone a license to grow as many as 25 pot plants continuously, year round, and led to the off-kilter notion that with the addition of dozens of medical marijuana cards, one could legally grow hundreds of plants anywhere in the county without fear of prosecution. That is where we stand today.
Don't let the "No on B" folks fool you. Measure B will indeed put a crimp on commercial marijuana production. They also argue that 25 plants is not a commercial growing operation. We differ. A 25-plant pot garden is not personal use. Much of that pot is being sold on the open market.
As the closure of the Ukiah medical marijuana dispensary this week showed, there are far more people growing "medical marijuana" than there are local medical marijuana patients.
If the news about the expanding commercial marijuana operations in this county disturbs you, if you support medical marijuana and even personal use, but not the outrageous abuses and the current pot traffic, then plan to vote Yes on B and make the message clear that we want our county back.
Argument in favor of Measure B
With the boom in commercial marijuana growing a crime wave has engulfed our communities. Home invasion robberies, trespassing, impacts to schools, and an influx of guns and attack dogs in residential neighborhoods are commonplace. Young people are increasingly turning to marijuana cultivation as a "career path."
Environmental damage from marijuana cultivation includes spills of diesel fuel and waste oil, dumping of trash, misuse of pesticides and fertilizers, illegal water diversion that has completely dried up some streams, poisoning of wildlife, damage to rural roads and strong odors that have sickened nearby residents.
What has caused this crisis? Much of the blame lies with Measure G, approved in 2000, that told law enforcement that all marijuana laws were the "lowest priority" for law enforcement, even lower than jaywalking.
Measure G discourages law enforcement from protecting us against even the most flagrant abuses by the commercial growers and sends a message to the nation that "marijuana is legal" in Mendocino County.
This has made us a magnet for "get-rich-quick" growers who hide behind medical marijuana as a "cover" for commercial marijuana production.
A "Yes" vote on Measure B does two simple things: it protects the rights of medical marijuana patients by adopting the same limits as state law and it repeals Measure G.
"Yes" on B tells law enforcement that we want protection against the abuses of the "no-limits" commercial growers.
"Yes" on B tells out-of-control growers that they are no longer welcome in Mendocino County.
Help save Mendocino County. Vote "Yes" on Measure B.
Duane Wells , Co-chairman, Yes on B Coalition
D.J. Miller, Co-chairman, Yes on B Coalition
Mari Rodin
Dave Bengston
Ron Orenstein
The rest of the argument
Measure B is a backward step towards marijuana re-criminalization that targets small-scale, personal use growers instead of large-scale commercial operators and organized criminals who are actually causing the problems in Mendocino County.
In 2000, Mendocino County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure G, the Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, which allows cultivation of twenty--five (25) plants or fewer for personal use only, while leaving commercial cultivation and sales illegal.
Measure B would 1) repeal Measure G so as to re-criminalize personal use growing, and 2) subject medical marijuana patients to arrest and prosecution on felony charges for growing more than six (6) plants, forcing many seriously ill people into the criminal market to get their medicine.
Mendocino County will not be made safer by cracking down on small personal use growers. Instead, it will be made less safe by diverting police resources. Sheriff Tom Allman has said that reducing patient plant guidelines to six plants would be "a burden on law enforcement" under which his deputies "will not be able to focus on any other public safety issue". (Press Democrat 3/17/07)
Mendocino County sorely needs to regulate large-scale gardens and to attack illicit grows and commercial trafficking. Measure B is a bogus diversion that does neither.
The solution is not to repeal Measure G (MCC9.36), but to seek ways to enforce it by regulating commercial growing.
If you support targeting large-scale criminal operations rather than personal use gardens, VOTE NO on B.
If you believe seriously ill patients should not be arrested for seven (7) plants, VOTE NO on B.
If you believe law enforcement has more important priorities than arresting and prosecuting small marijuana gardeners, VOTE NO on B.
If you support decriminalization of marijuana, VOTE NO on B.
B is Bad for Mendocino. Vote NO.
I swear under penalty of perjury that the above NO ON MEASURE B ballot argument is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Signed by:
William L. Courtney MD
Catherine Babcock Magruder, Community Cultural Artist/Cancer Survivor
Keith Faulder, Attorney At Law
Peter Keegan MD
Lynda McClure, Union Representative
----------------------------------------------------------------
YES ON MEASURE B
REBUTTAL TO THE ARGUMENT AGAINST MEASURE B
Don’t be fooled by false arguments and misleading quotations.
Measure B protects medical patients - not commercial growers.
The State recommended limits of 6 adult or 12 immature plants, plus ½ lb of marijuana, (more if physician recommended), is more than sufficient for seriously ill patients.
Sheriff Allman is neutral on Measure B, but previously said, “the problem in California is a lack of consistency in the law.” Recently, Sheriff Allman stated “Measure B will not change our focus. Investigating violent crime will remain our top priority. We do not, and will not, target small grows. We will continue to focus on large grows and complaints about growers who create a public nuisance, endanger public safety or trash the environment.”
“YES” ON B repeals Measure G which is inconsistent with state law, and makes Mendocino County a magnet for commercial growers who use medical marijuana as a cover for growing hundreds of plants.
“YES” ON B repeals G, which sanctions commercial quantities of 25 plants for everyone and tells law enforcement that ALL marijuana laws are the “lowest priority” and should not be enforced.
VOTE “YES” ON B - repeal G and end the hypocrisy that tells our kids it’s OK to break the law as long as you make money.
VOTE “YES” ON B - tell law enforcement and elected officials we want to feel safe in our homes and neighborhoods and we want our children and the environment protected from commercial growers who are motivated only by quick profit.
more information: www.YesOnBCoalition.org
s/Dave Turner, Fort Bragg City Council member
s/Karen Oslund, Willits City Council member
s/Marvin Trotter, M.D., Emergency Room Physician
s/Karin Wandrei, Ph.D., Executive Director, Mendocino County Youth Project
s/Robert Werra, M.D., Hospice Medical Advisor
FULL Text of Measure B
[Note: In response to a petition from 1,000 citizens, along with resolutions by the city councils of Ukiah and Willits, the Board of Supervisors acted on January 8, 2008 to place Measure B on the ballot at the June election for consideration by the voters.]
The People of the County of Mendocino ordain as follows:
THE REPEAL OF (MEASURE G) MENDOCINO COUNTY CODE CHAPTER 9.36 CANNABIS PERSONAL USE ORDINANCE FOR MENDOCINO COUNTY, AND ADOPTION OF NEW GUIDELINES FOR MAINTENANCE AND POSSESSION OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA THAT DO NOT EXCEED THE MINIMUM STATE LIMITS.
Section 1 Purpose
The purpose of this ordinance is to eliminate the abuses created by the increased and uncontrolled production of recreational and medical marijuana while protecting the rights of legitimate medical marijuana patients and primary caregivers. It does so by repealing Measure G and establishing guidelines for possession of medical marijuana for medical purposes that are consistent with state law.
Section 2 Findings
1. On November 6, 1996, the people of the State of California enacted the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 known as Proposition 215, which permits seriously ill residents of the state, who have a doctor’s recommendation, to use or possess marijuana for medical purposes without fear of criminal liability. Proposition 215 is codified in Health and Safety Code section 11362.5.
2. On November 7, 2000, the voters of Mendocino County approved an initiative known as Measure G (administratively codified as Mendocino County Code Chapter 9.36), the stated purpose of which was to establish a maximum limit of plants and weight for cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal medical and recreational use in Mendocino County, and prohibit the expenditure of public funds for enforcement of marijuana laws against cultivators and users in possession of quantities below that limit, which was identified by the Measure as twenty-five (25) adult flowering female marijuana plants or the equivalent in dried marijuana.
3. On October 12, 2003, the Governor of the State of California signed SB 420. Codified in sections 11362.7 through 11362.83 of the Health and Safety Code, SB 420 was adopted to address implementation of Proposition 215 and to facilitate the prompt identification of qualified patients and their designated primary caregivers in order to avoid unnecessary arrest and prosecution of these individuals.
4. SB 420 establishes minimum guidelines for the maintenance and possession of medical marijuana. Health and Safety Code Section 11362.77(a)-(f) provides that a qualified patient or primary caregiver may possess no more than eight (8) ounces of dried marijuana per qualified patient and that a qualified patient or primary caregiver may also maintain no more than six (6) mature of twelve (12) immature plants per qualified patient. If a qualified patient or primary caregiver has a doctor’s recommendation that this quantity does not meet the qualified patient’s needs, the qualified patient or primary caregiver may possess an amount that is consistent with the qualified patient’s needs.
5. Health and Safety Code section 11362.77(c) allows counties and cities to retain or enact medical marijuana guidelines allowing qualified patients or primary caregivers to exceed the state limits.
6. On August 7, 2007, the Board of Supervisors, in accordance with Health and Safety Code section 11362.77(c) and recognizing the state purpose of Measure G as it related to medical use only, adopted a policy, which allowed qualified patients or primary caregivers to maintain twenty-five (25) plants and to possess no more than two (2) pounds dried marijuana per qualified patient.
7. The effect of Measure G has been to increase public safety issues surrounding the uncontrolled production of marijuana either for medical or recreational use, and has jeopardized the health, safety and welfare of the people of Mendocino County.
Section 3 Repeal of Mendocino County Code Chapter 9.36
Mendocino County Code Chapter 9.36, Cannabis Personal Use Ordinance for Mendocino County, is hereby repealed.
Section 4 Limits for Possession of Marijuana for Medical Purposes
A qualified patient or primary caregiver may possess or maintain for medical purposes only those amounts as set forth in Health and Safety Code section 11362.77 and as amended by State or Federal legislation.
Section 5 Severability
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this ordinance is for any reason held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of the ordinance.
4 comments:
Man arrested for pot, again
By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Less than two months before his trial for cultivation of marijuana for sale, a Ukiah man was arrested again Monday with almost 300 marijuana plants growing in his house and more than 30 pounds of processed marijuana.
Memo Parker, 37, has been a thorn in the side of his neighbors and a reason cited by Ukiah officials when they implemented pot ordinances limiting to 12 the amount of medical marijuana that can be grown per parcel.
“It’s a good example of why we have the ordinances,” said Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey.
Neighbors for years have complained about the overwhelming stench of marijuana gardens and voiced concern about violence after a would-be marijuana thief shot Parker in the hand in 2004.
Parker was arrested on pot cultivation and sales charges in 2006, but his 2007 trial ended in an 11-1 hung jury.
The District Attorney’s Office refiled the charges and he’s scheduled for a new jury trial in April.
The warrant served on Parker’s home Monday stemmed from neighbor complaints and from his electrical usage, which was about six times what would be normal for his home, said Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force Commander Bob Nishiyama.
Parker was booked Monday on suspicion of marijuana cultivation, cultivation for sale and committing a new offense while on bail.
He’s being held on $100,000 bail. Before he makes bail, he must prove the money does not come from illegal endeavors, Nishiyama said.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080226/NEWS/609487122
Pot raid on Gardens Ave.
By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal
Article Last Updated: 02/27/2008 08:49:04 AM PST
Law enforcement officers served a search warrant on Memo Parker's home Monday afternoon, seizing close to 300 plants and arresting Parker on possession and cultivation charges under circumstances similar to a raid on the same two houses more than a year ago.
Officers with the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, accompanied by Ukiah Police Department officers, served search warrants on Parker's homes at 106 Gardens Ave. and 130 Gardens Ave. Monday afternoon.
MMCTF Commander Bob Nishiyama said the search warrants were the result of repeated complaints from neighbors as well as a review of records of electrical usage, which Nishiyama said were six times higher than typical for a home.
"His meter was spinning off the wall," Nishiyama said.
"They had enough probable cause to serve a search warrant," UPD Chief Chris Dewey said.
Officers seized 297 adult marijuana plants as well as 34 pounds of dried marijuana.
When confronted by officers, Parker presented one medical marijuana recommendation and said he was growing the marijuana for the Green Cross medical marijuana collective in San Francisco, Dewey said.
"He admits he drove marijuana to San Francisco in his $60,000 BMW M3," Nishiyama said.
Senate Bill 420 allows people to act as caretakers and grow medical marijuana for people with valid recommendations.
In the city of Ukiah, a medical marijuana patient can legally possess six mature marijuana plants or 12 immature marijuana plants, as well as up to
eight-ounces of dried marijuana.
Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and cultivation of marijuana.
Dewey said the house at 130 Gardens Ave. had been completely converted for marijuana growing and processing. Half the rooms were set up to grow marijuana, and the other half were being used to dry and process marijuana, Dewey said.
Parker was also growing marijuana in a shed in the back yard of 106 Gardens Ave. next door. Dewey said electricity had been diverted from 130 Gardens Ave. through the fence to power grow lights in the shed.
Dewey said the electricity to 130 Gardens Ave. was shut off by the city Monday because of the electricity diversion.
This is Parker's second brush with the law over marijuana. In October of 2006, he was arrested on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana for sale and possession of marijuana for sale after a search warrant served on the same two Gardens Avenue homes turned up 190 adult marijuana plants, 262 smaller "clone" marijuana plants and 170 pounds of dried marijuana, according to UPD reports.
Parker's brother, Mark Parker, was also arrested in the October 2006 raid and both were tried on marijuana charges. The trial ended in a hung jury in August 2007 and a second trial has been scheduled for April 21.
Mark Parker was not arrested Monday, and additional charges have not been levied against him.
J. David Nick, Memo Parker's attorney, said Parker's Monday arrest was an outrage.
"This is part of what I consider the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office attempt to quash the people's right to collectively grow medical marijuana," Nick said.
Nick said he expected the April 21 trial to end in a hung jury or an acquittal. He said he would be representing Parker pro-bono on these latest charges.
Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_8379370
Busted again, 2 months before pot trial
By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Less than two months before his trial for cultivation of marijuana for sale, a Ukiah man was arrested again, this time with nearly 300 marijuana plants and more than 30 pounds of processed marijuana, police said.
Memo Parker, 37, was booked Monday on suspicion of marijuana cultivation, cultivation for sale and committing a new offense while on bail.
Parker's alleged illegal endeavors have been a neighborhood scourge and a reason cited by Ukiah officials when they implemented ordinances limiting to 12 the number of medical marijuana plants that can be grown per parcel and banning pot from being grown outdoors.
"It's a good example of why we have the ordinances," said Police Chief Chris Dewey.
It's also an example of the type of abuse of medicinal marijuana laws that has fueled a backlash against commercial pot growers in Mendocino County, said Cathy Puterbaugh, one of Parker's neighbors and a supporter of efforts to limit commercial pot production.
Neighbors in Parker's quiet west Ukiah neighborhood for years have complained about the overwhelming stench from his marijuana gardens and voiced concerns about violence after a would-be marijuana thief shot Parker in the hand in 2004.
But state and local regulations allowing for medicinal pot production stalled enforcement action.
Parker, who says he grows pot for medical use, continued to produce large amounts, even after being charged with cultivation and sales in 2006, according to law enforcement.
At that time, he and his brother, who lived next door but has since moved, possessed 193 mature plants in their back yards, 252 starter plants indoors and 106 grams of concentrated cannabis, said Police Capt. Justin Wyatt.
But their 2007 trial ended in an 11-1 hung jury.
The District Attorney's Office refiled the charges against Parker and scheduled a new jury trial in April.
The warrant served on Parker's home Monday stemmed from ongoing neighbor complaints and from his electrical usage, which was about 6,000 kilowatts per month -- six times what would be normal for his home, said Commander Bob Nishiyama of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.
That, combined with haphazard wiring in and around the home, created a fire hazard, he said.
In addition to marijuana, law enforcement agents seized Parker's BMW M-3 convertible, valued at more than $60,000 and purchased just before his trial last year, Nishiyama said.
Parker was being held in the Mendocino County Jail on $100,000 bail. Before he makes bail, he must prove the money does not come from illegal endeavors, Nishiyama said.
You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 and glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080227/NEWS/802270387/1033/NEWS01
Marijuana defendant posts bail
By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal
Article Last Updated: 03/05/2008 08:21:35 AM PST
Memo Parker was released on bail Tuesday, over the objections of Deputy District Attorney James Nerli.
Parker has been in jail since his Feb. 25 arrest on suspicion of marijuana possession and cultivation. He had been barred from posting bail until he could prove that the money was not the result of criminal activity.
Bond was posted by Ananda Borden, a childhood friend of Parker's. Borden said he would pay the bond with a credit card.
"He would not be getting any funds from Memo Parker or from any illegal activities," said attorney E. D. Lehrman, who was making a special appearance for Parker Tuesday.
Borden is unemployed and lives off of investments that he inherited from his grandparents and great-grandparents. He said he was not involved in the growing or sale of medical marijuana and did not use medical marijuana.
Bail bondsman Grace Gault testified that she had already run Borden's credit card and that she was satisfied with the payment.
Borden said he did not own any property that could be used as collateral, but Gault said her company would accept Parker's Gardens Avenue homes as collateral for the bail payment, despite the fact that there is currently a lien against the property.
Nerli objected to the use of that property as collateral.
"Those houses were purchased with the proceeds from the sale of illicit marijuana," he said.
Bail bond companies cannot use property purchased with the proceeds of a crime as collateral, Nerli said.
At the time of his arrest, Nerli said Parker admitted that the sale of marijuana was his only occupation.
Lehrman argued that Nerli had presented no evidence that the Gardens Avenue homes were bought with drug money, noting that Parker was receiving worker's compensation payments when one of the homes was purchased.
Mendocino Superior Court Judge David Nelson was prepared to rule against allowing Borden to pay Parker's bond based on the use of the Gardens Avenue homes as collateral, but Gault retook the stand and testified she would be willing to accept Borden's payment without collateral.
Parker was released on $75,000 bail, and is ordered to appear in court on March 18 to discuss who will represent him at trial.
He was arrested Feb. 25 on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and cultivation of marijuana after officers seized 297 marijuana plants and 34 pounds of dried marijuana during the service of a search warrant, according to police reports.
This is Parker's second brush with the law. In October of 2006, he and his brother, Mark Parker, were arrested on marijuana cultivation charges. The case ended in mistrial and has been rescheduled for April 21.
Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_8462084
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