Two groups with quite different agendas but upset at the same thing–Orange County's justice system– joined forces today at OC Superior Court in Santa Ana, carrying signs and chanting slogans in an effort to alert the public to problems inside OC's main courthouse.
In front of the building, OCNORML, a local branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, protested over several high-profile raids against local cannabis clubs, some of whose members now sit in jail on drug charges. Meanwhile, in the back of the building, activists gathered to demand reform of OC's treatment of so-called “pro persona” defendants who choose to act as their own attorneys.
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up front with their signs and were greeted with cheers by a few dozen
OCNORML protesters who waved signs urging the OC District Attorney's
office to stop harassing medical marijuana smokers. “This is a peaceful
protest,” said Kandice Hawes, OCNORML's president, as passing motorists
honked their horns in support. “We're asking the DA to redirect their
resources to more serious drug problems and violent crimes.”
wasting taxpayer money,” added Al Moreno, vice president of OCNORML.
“This has been state law for 13 years now and they should be following
it. It's a waste of resources. LA is going bankrupt. The government
should tax and regulate medical marijuana–that'd solve a lot of
problems–instead of going against the will of the people of
California.”
One protester not present
that day because of medical marijuana was CJ Ford, a private
investigator who was featured in a recent OC Weekly story, “The Bad Detective,” which
profiled Ford's efforts to work as a private investigator for several
pro persona defendants being tried at the courthouse. Although elsewhere
in California, such defendants can choose their own investigators from a
published list, there is no such list in OC, leaving many defendants
saddled with Joseph Szeles, an investigator with a checkered past who
somehow managed to get the lion's share of the pro per cases. “What
we're doing is following up on that article about Szeles to demand that
they post a public list of investigators and make sure they allow pro
per defendanst to choose their own investigators,” Ford said. “They can
choose their own investigators everywhere else except OC.”
activist, Tina Jackson, asserted that OC judges have an inherent bias
against pro persona defendants, despite their constitutional right to
represent themselves in court. “These judges don't like pro per
defendants because they dare to represent themselves even though they
didn't go to law school. They don't grant their motions automatically,
and then give them the stiffest sentence possible, for the crime of
representing themselves. They've been doing this for for years, and it's
got to stop. What are they afraid of?” she asked. “That one of these
guys is going to actually win his case?”
point, Ford, Jackson and other protesters marched to the front of the
courthouse chanting “I don't know but I've been told, all bad judges
have to go.”
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).