In a remarkable opinion issued today with potential Orange County implications, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blasted the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for committing “highly objectionable,” “tainted,” “reckless,” “misleading” and “illegal” conduct in a 2005 attempt to seize more than $186,400 from a legally compliant Southern California medical marijuana distributorship.
The opinion reverses a federal District Court’s ruling that blocked a summary judgment motion by United Medical Caregivers Clinic, Inc., which was trying to regain its plundered cash from federal agents. Though California law allows for medical marijuana distributorships, the feds eventually grabbed the clinic’s cash under the theory that all marijuana sales are illegal under federal law. LAPD’s misconduct should not preclude federal agents (who weren’t involved in the case) from taking control of the money, federal prosecutors said.
Noting the “strong” self-interest cops have in seizing drug assets for themselves, the justices said, “The integrity of this court is served by our refusal to allow the government to profit from illegal activity by law enforcement when such activity produces incriminating evidence.”
In recent months and after this case was filed, U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder announced that federal agents will not prosecute
medical marijuana providers in states where the activity is legal.
![R. Scott Moxley](https://ocweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/scott-moxley.jpg?x30811)
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.