Chavez Offered Plea Bargain

Though he faces 15 years in prison on 10 counts of selling and distributing drugs, the director of an Orange County medicinal marijuana club said Tuesday he would rather go to jail than admit wrongdoing as part of a proffered deal that could keep him from serving time.

Marvin Chavez, 42, said Tuesday, the first day of his trial, that Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald had given him 24 hours to mull an unexpected offer from the prosecution: Chavez would probably receive some time in County Jail but would receive credit for time already served, along with five years’ probation. Because he was in jail for 90 days awaiting trial, Chavez might not serve time at all.

The deal also would have allowed him to use marijuana personally but not to distribute it to others, Chavez said.

But Chavez, an ardent defender and proponent of Proposition 215, said he balks at either pleading guilty or agreeing to stop distributing “the medicine.”

“I’m thinking that I cannot take the deal,” Chavez said. “I’ve always been inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela--look at Mandela! He spent 27 years in prison for what he believed in, and it paid off.

“I’m not trying to save the world, but I’m an American,” said Chavez, director of the Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group. “I’m willing to stand for my civil rights.”

Proposition 215, which passed in November 1996, permits people with doctors’ recommendations to use marijuana legally to treat illness. It also calls on the federal and other state governments to implement a plan for the affordable distribution of marijuana to patients. The initiative, however, has caused much confusion about whether federal or state drugs laws have more weight.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carl Armbrust confirmed that Chavez had been offered a deal but would not discuss any details.

Should he agree to bargain, Chavez would fare far better than another cannabis club member recently sentenced in an Orange County court.

David Lee Herrick, 48, was convicted in May on two counts of felony marijuana sale and sentenced to four years in prison. Herrick, who has been in jail since March 1997, was arrested after police found several plastic bags of marijuana identified as cannabis club property and marked “Not For Sale” in his possession.

One of Chavez’s attorneys, Robert L. Kennedy, later in the day groaned on learning of his client’s inclination. Only last week, Kennedy was anticipating an appeal of Chavez’s potential conviction. The deal offered Tuesday would provide an alternative to lengthy legal wrangling.

Also, with a new district attorney and county sheriff coming into office in January, Chavez would do more for the movement by working with them than by going to prison, Kennedy said.

Outgoing Sheriff Brad Gates campaigned heavily against Proposition 215, but Sheriff-elect Mike Carona has said he believes doctors should have the power to prescribe marijuana to seriously ill people.

“We will stand by [Chavez], but I would rather see him laying the groundwork for an enlightened allocation of resources for those patients who are seriously ill,” Kennedy said.

Obviously exasperated, Kennedy added: “It’s too bad he can’t call Herrick up and ask what his feelings are and what he’d do if he’d had the same offer.”