District Attorney Gallegos Going After Trimmers
Kym Kemp / Nov. 8, 2011 @ 3:24 p.m. / Humboldt , marijuana
As prices for pot drop, prices for trimming have begun slowly to drop, too. Growers have argued that trimmers don’t really face much risk and yet they get over 10% of the income. (Prices last year roughly averaged around $16oo per pound for outdoor and $28oo for indoor while trimming fees were around $200 per pound.) No one could even name a trimmer who had ever been arrested. But for the last year or two, there has been a new trend in the Emerald Triangle— charging trimmers.
Today the Times Standard’s Thadeus Greenson put out an excellent piece on what many observers had begun to suspect–that trimmers are being targeted by law enforcement. In the article, Paul Gallegos responds to the concern that big growers are able to forfeit money and do some community service and walk away while trimmers, with no money to sweeten the desire to deal, remain in jail awaiting trial.
District Attorney Paul Gallegos said defense attorneys in this case, and others, simply think trimmers should get a “sweet deal” but he’s not inclined to give them one.
”They are all engaged in a criminal enterprise so we expect them all to plead guilty to a felony,” Gallegos said.
With Proposition 36 mandating treatment, not prison, for qualifying nonviolent drug offenders and a recent corrections re-alignment bill keeping low-level offenders out of state prisons, Gallegos said everyone involved knows none of these people are going to prison. Nonetheless, Gallegos said he expects trimmers to plead guilty to a felony and, ultimately, give back to the community through a sentence of community service, just like growers.
Gallegos also disputed that this stance puts trimmers and growers on the same level. First, he said, a judge is going to dole out harsher sentences for growers. Second, he said, people should keep in mind that growers sustain other losses when busted.
”The people that we believe are running the business, we are taking them out of business,” he said. “The big people, they lose all their money, all their product and all the capital.”
The trimmers lose less at a bust because they have not invested in the enterprise, Gallegos said.
That whole line of reasoning has problems, according to [defense attorney] Schwartz.
”That logic of their suffering greater consequences doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “That’s the risk they take. It’s like feeling sorry for Bernie Madoff because he lost everything — his yachts and his homes in New York. … To say that their ill-gotten gains are all gone therefore they suffered greater consequences just doesn’t make any sense.”
Whether or not it makes sense, taking a hard line on prosecuting trimmers is going to be the approach, Gallegos said, adding that he is actually working with law enforcement to target busts for when as many people are at the scene as possible. Recent cases — which have featured the arrest of dozens of trimmers — should send a message, Gallegos said.
”These people need to understand that they are engaged in illegal activities and there will be consequences until the law is changed,” Gallegos said. “I hope they understand that we are looking and we are watching and we are waiting until they’re there to do our busts.”
You need to read the whole article. The disparity between what the grower has agreed to (the judge could still nix the deal) and what the trimmers face is disheartening considering the relative profit that each stood to gain. On top of that, is this where we want to spend our limited cash resources in this county? Prosecuting trimmers? In the case being referred to above, as a plethora of interpreters as well as public defense attorneys were used and at least one of the trimmers has not made bail (risk of flight because of nationality and visa issues) and thus is being housed at county expense, the costs must be astronomical. The system is totally broken if it makes sense to send a non-violent, wage worker to county jail while confiscating only money and time from a grower. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the deal that was made for the grower— I’m against the proportion of punishment that falls on the person least likely to have contributed to any actual criminal behavior. Marijuana manicurists often have little or no true knowledge of illegal activity of the grower they work for.
Trimmers have nothing to do with sales.
They shouldn’t be seeing the inside of jails.
The truth is that everything we’re seeing in the local news points to the increase in criminal elements involved in the pot business despite the legalization of pot. The facts are that most of those who grow don’t follow the law they fought for. A law not recognize by the feds.
Law enforcement is not finding plants being used for medicine. They’re finding pot being distributed for sale in states that don’t allow pot (like Nevada).
Kym, you and I don’t agree on this one, I know. I wish I could believe that legalization of pot would do away with the criminal culture around it, but the current findings lately have shown otherwise.
On another note, Nevada does have medical legalization. We are allowed 7 plants total, with only 3 in the flowering stage at a time. If anyone was paying attention they would know that several illegal grows were busted in the last couple of months up on Mt. Charleston, close to Las Vegas. One of these grows had 9000 plants. If you think your grows are sucking up too much water think about what they are doing to a desert environment. Although I am pro-legalization across the board I will not condone the environmental damage done by these mega-grows in my environment or yours.
That’s the same kind of unequal justice that the DA’s office served up when they gave a no-jail sweetheart deal to the Eureka cop who was arrested last year for possession of heroin, possession of several other controlled substances, harassing his ex-wife, vandalism, improper use of DMV records, failure to appear in court, etc.
In that case, the argument was that since the cop was perceived as such a pillar of the community before the arrest, therefore the loss of that (undeserved) status as a pillar of the community was enough punishment in and of itself.
In both cases the operating principle seems to be that if you have more wealth, and/or status at the time of your arrest, you will get off easy. That’s pretty much the exact opposite of “equal justice.”
Paul, can’t all the necessary butts get covered under misdemeanor pleas? Why not?
I don’t know, but this looks like it might be a response (message) to the ever increasing influx of seasonal workers (trimmers, homeless) to Humboldt.
For those who not having access to the full article by the Times-Standard’sThadeus Greenson, here’s an important excerpt:
“A RECENT plea agreement entered into by the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office sends a clear and troubling message, according to one local defense attorney.
EUREKE ATTORNEY Eddie Schrock said his client Lulita Tsygankova, 23, had been in jail nine days when she heard about the agreement entered into by Stanislaw Kopiej — the 66-year-old man the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office deemed the “prime suspect” after an Oct. 19 search of his Hydesville property turned up 425 pounds of dried marijuana, more than 400 plants and $175,000 in cash…
SITTING IN the courthouse hallway after Tsygankova was held to stand trial stemming from her arrest for allegedly trimming marijuana on a Bridgeville property discovered after the search of Kopiej’s property, Schrock said Kopiej’s agreement sends the wrong message to his client — who, as of Friday, had already spent 16 nights in jail.
‘THE MESSAGE that she received is that if you have enough money in our system, you can buy your way out of jail,’ Schrock said. ‘I think the judge was very clear that, at best, (Tsygankova and her four co-defendants) are low-level individuals — I don’t even agree with that with my client — but they have certainly been treated much more harshly than Mr. Kopiej.’”
(Thadeus Greenson, Times-Standard A Pleading Question; Defense Attorney Says Plea Deal Raises Question Of Fairness)
I agree that Gallegos’ line of reasoning is twisted. Trimmers should not be charged with felonies. Most of the trimmers I know are women, a high percentage of them moms who have no other employment opportunities in the remote parts of the county. They live from trim job to trim job and that money pays for basic living things, not luxuries. They’re making around $20 an hour (unless they’re super fast) with no benefits or job security for part time and seasonal work. Making them felons and forcing them to defend themselves in court means either they have to pay an attorney or further burden the court system using publicly funded defense lawyers.
What troubles me more is the sweetheart deal the D.A. made for the grower in the big Bridgeville bust. The message he sends is that if you’re a big greedy grower don’t worry, you can buy your way out of jail. But if you’re a day laborer trying to make ends meet, tough luck, you’re going to get a strike on your record.
”These people need to understand that they are engaged in illegal activities and there will be consequences until the law is changed,” Gallegos said. “I hope they understand that we are looking and we are watching and we are waiting until they’re there to do our busts.”
Part of the conflict in Campbell and Tsygankova’s cases, Gallegos said, is that the bulk of the co-defendants — including Tsygankova — are foreign nationals and risk deportation if they plead guilty to a felony drug offense. ”
Oversupply has meant a drastic drop in the price per pound. Nothing like a few choice busts to reduce supply and bring the price back up. The effects might be felt even more next year, if it influences whether growers put up large, in-your-face grow scenes.
That doesn’t really explain the raw deal for trimmers, though. They’re not responsible for overproduction. So maybe Longwind and Humboldtkids are right, Gallegos is worried that he won’t look tough enough to the feds. Sad.
I have sympathy for the trimmers because I know they’re just doing what they can to get by. But the lawlessness around pot isn’t going to go away. It’s like driving way too fast on the highway. It’s breaking the law and you could get killed.
As far as Gallegos goes, he’s proven time and again that he will turn on those who voted him in.
i.e. “slavespeak.” “Legal” -words on paper. Next time you’re thirsty, write down the word ‘water’ and see if you can drink it. ‘Law’ - common law, moral law - we all know it’s wrong to kill, harm another life form, steal, cheat, lie - we don’t have to write it down. The meek have inherited the Earth. Meek is akin to mucus —can’t speak. Those of us who can ‘will’ speak for our brothers and sisters. IFF you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.
How can what has happened lately show otherwise, when cannabis has not been legalized? Are you sure you’re not confounding the effects of prohibition with intrinsic characteristics of the cannabis market? Prohibition = price supports = large profit motive.
And please, I don’t feel sorry for the trimmers because they are just “trying to make a living and get by.” I work my butt off at a legal job and only make 10 bucks an hour (I have a college education) and I support two children and I would never, ever consider doing something illegal to make ends meet.
REPEAT: California seceded from the Union October 21, 2011. No, you will not read of this historic event in the Nazi new, new, newspapers. WHY? BEEcause THEY are paid for and owned by five media moguls. Juirs-law, right. Diction—to speak. IFF you don’t know any diction, you can’t claim jurisdiction. Your beLIEfs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny. Ghandi CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE! or not.
That’s new, new, news to me.
cannabiz has infected somebody’s brain. It’s called “thanks for the help, I REALLY appreciate it and I hope it was worth your while because mum’s the word.” If ever you hear growers complain what it’s going to cost to trim their bud, tell them they’re growing too much. They can go rent a modified hay bailer to do the work of the trimmers, do everybody else a favor and put themselves right on the watch list.
Sorry but that doesn’t compute. If a grower can’t afford to pay trimmers, in order to cover the expense, they need to grow more not less.
We don’t have to fight to be free, just stop complying.
We must learn to think and speak in a language that better serves us.