Santa Cruz MMJ Prosecutions

Santa Cruz's tolerance for medical marijuana hasn't stopped it from
prosecuting providers who push the envelope too far, as in the case
reported below.
Also, on March 11, a Santa Cruz County jury convicted Roger
Mentch, a caregiver-cultivator who was arrested with 191 plants in
2003.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/March/12/local/stories/01local.htm

Santa Cruz Sentinel
March 12, 2005

Drug suspects rolling in dough, deputies allege
By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

SANTACRUZ - It looked like a typical Santa Cruz house, but according
to sheriff's reports, it wasn't your typical Santa Cruz drug bust.

Along with 22 pounds of marijuana, 2 pounds of hallucinogenic
mushrooms, 1 to 2 ounces of hash powder, 10 pounds of solid hash, 1
to 2 gallons of hash oil, 27 pot plants and $2,820 in cash, deputies
found butter, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, cookie dough and a
nut ball all laced with THC in a house on the 100 block of Post
Street on Wednesday.

THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

"Usually we'll have marijuana and mushrooms, it's common for people
to deal both of those," said detective Sgt. Steve Carney with the
Santa Cruz County Marijuana Enforcement Team. "Where they're actually
making hash is unique."

Robert Dolivierra, 41, and girlfriend Andrea Covarrubias, 24, both
of Santa Cruz, were arrested Wednesday on drug charges, deputies said.

Dolivierra was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for
sale, possession of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms for sale,
manufacturing hash and for a probation violation.

Covarrubias was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for
sale and manufacturing hash.

Both had legitimate medical marijuana cards, Carney said.

"What they're doing, they're putting a bad mark on the folks who
need (marijuana) for medical needs," Carney said.

On the outside, the home looks like many in town. A sign on a porch
bookcase invites guests to help themselves. Green padded furniture
rests next to a seashell filled with cigarette butts. Wind chimes
hang overhead, and a sign in the door asks visitors to please take
off their shoes - complete with a smiley face at the bottom.

The house is listed for sale with a local real estate agency.

Dolivierra and Covarrubias apparently lived in the house, Carney said.

The arrest came after a two-week investigation.

Investigators arrived Wednesday to find a large pot of marijuana
material boiling on the stove, Carney said.

One investigator later picked up an instruction book on how to make
hash, Carney said, looked around the kitchen and realized the
supplies were all there.

Handwritten recipes pointed investigators to the cookies and
cheesecake, Carney said. Marijuana grew in a boarded-up bedroom.

The house appeared to be a self-sustaining operation, he said.

Instead of harvesting buds off the plant and getting rid of the rest
like many growers do, "these people were using every piece of the
plant, down to the stems and everything," Carney said.

The duo allegedly made hash, hash oil, hashish and hashish powder.

The marijuana plants would have produced about $8,000 to $10,000
worth of high-grade pot, Carney said.

The processed marijuana was valued between $15,000 and $20,000, with
a street value of $40,000 to $50,000, deputies said. The hash oil
could have sold for about $60,000, and mushrooms for another $5,000.

Friday, Dolivierra pleaded innocent to three felony charges of
possessing drugs for sale and cultivating marijuana. Public defender
Larry Shallberg was appointed to represent him.

Judge John Salazar raised his bail to $100,000, which Shallberg said
was "about $90,000 too high." Salazar countered that it was
"outrageous conduct" that Dolivierra was found with such an array of
illegal substances so soon after his release from custody in a
similar case.

Shallberg said Dolivierra did not live at the home where the drugs
were reportedly found and that it is questionable they belonged to
him.

Salazar agreed to set a March 22 date for Shallberg to argue for a lower bail.

Covarrubias was released Friday on $5,000 bail, jail officials said.

On Oct. 22, 2004, Dolivierra was sentenced to six months in jail and
given three years probation after a jury convicted him of one count
of possessing marijuana for sale. He was found not guilty of a second
count. In 1999, he was sentenced to 60 days in jail, three years
probation and a three-year suspended sentence after pleading no
contest to possessing pot for sale.

Contact Genevieve Bookwalter at gbookwalter [at] santacruzsentinel.com.