FILLMORE : Huff Pleads Not Guilty to Marijuana Charges
Douglas Huff, owner and publisher of the Fillmore Herald, pleaded not guilty in Ventura County Municipal Court on Friday to charges of supplying marijuana to juveniles.
Huff, 50, was arrested at his Fernglen Circle home Dec. 22 after sheriff’s deputies found marijuana and drug paraphernalia there during a search. He was later released on $50,000 bail.
Deputies went to the house after two teenage boys accused Huff of giving them marijuana and smoking it with them.
Dan Schmidt, an attorney who accompanied Huff to court Friday, said he hopes that residents of Fillmore will give Huff a chance to clear his name.
“The plea speaks for itself,” Schmidt said. “Doug operates his newspaper in large part out of his home and he relies on kids in the community to help him put the paper together. So things are not as strange as alleged.”
Schmidt said Huff has turned over the operation of the paper to someone else so that it can continue publishing without the stigma of his arrest.
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