Santa Cruz Activist Detained on Independence Day

On July 4, 2010, longtime activist Donna Deiss, who had her right arm broken by Sgt. LeMoss in a medical marijuana sting on W. Cliff Drive in May 2008, was detained by Officer Gonzales and Officer Pineda as soon as she entered the city limits at 10:30 PM after a three week visit to Oregon.

In June, 2010, Deiss’s RV had three windows smashed by a crowbar because an irate driver thought she had bumped his Suburu on Front St. behind the Palomar Restaurant tunnel. A witness told police what had happened yet Officer Gonzales ordered Deiss to sit on the curb and accused her of “hit and run.” Deiss explained she looked at the Subaru but there was no damage so she entered the Santa Cruz Roasting Company coffee shop to write on her computer as she usually does every evening. Deiss told Gonzales her arm was broken by Sgt. LeMoss and that she was afraid of the police. He did not acknowledge the windows broken by a crowbar until the end of the detainment. Deiss is a disabled senior who spend several years helping tenants facing eviction in the 1990s and participated in the 2006 week long protest against the sleeping ban at City Hall.

After driving for eleven hours Deiss was tired as she drove Highway 17 and was followed by Officer Gonzales who pulled her over into the parking lot of the Peachwood Bar and Grill. He claimed she had swerved into the next lane and nearly hit his police car. Deiss explained she had been driving from Oregon and simply wanted to go home. She was shaking from her encounter with the police and brushed the awning extending over the parking lot when she left. She heard a noise but thought something had fallen off the counter in her RV. She looked and saw no damages.

As soon as Deiss arrived at the Clocktower on Pacific Avenue Officers Gonzales and Pineda pulled her over again claiming she had brushed the awning at Peachwood Bar and Grill and was yelled at by a woman while leaving. Deiss gave her ID, registration and insurance card to the police while they waited to see if the owner of Peachwood Bar and Grill wanted to press charges, and no tickets were given. Deiss told the officers she did not see any woman or any damage to the restaurant. Instead the damage was hers as her two top hatches had been ripped off in her hurry to get home and away from the police who terrified her. She has AAA and no accidents or tickets on her driving record.

At the end of Pacific Avenue in front of Lulu’s, Deiss was given multiple sobriety tests although she repeatedly stated she did not drink and was not under the influence of any drugs. She passed all of the tests so Officers Gonzales and Pineda had her breathe into a tube they claimed to test for marijuana smoke. Deiss stated she had a Medicann card but they said she was “very close” to being charged with driving under the influence of marijuana. Friends told her later there is so such test and that the officers were faking it in order to attempt to scare her. No one walking by would stop or take a cell phone picture as all are aware of the truculent attitude of the SCPD towards the homeless, activists and medical marijuana proponents. An initiative to legalize and tax marijuana in California is on the ballot in November which has polarized law enforcement officials in a last stand against its passage.

Deiss stared at Officer Pineda wondering why he was participating in such harassment. He stated “You are well known by the SCPD as a marijuana smoker.” Deiss has no convictions for smoking marijuana and has had a prescription since Proposition 215 passed in 1995. She questions the SCPD’s priorities and treatment of the dispossessed, seniors and homeless as a new ordnance is being passed July 13 to give $1,000 fines to the homeless for sleeping outdoors. Deiss counsels and attempts to help all homeless people and encourages them to develop their talents and become self-sufficient.