Report from the Fry-Schafer Legal Defense Committee

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Physician and Attorney Call Medical Marijuana Case a Vendetta

Couple questions role of local law enforcement, dismisses allegations.

A Report from the Fry-Schafer Legal Defense Committee

July 18th, 2005

Contact: Bobby Eisenberg
530-823-9963
Bobby at docfry.com
http://www.docfry.com

An El Dorado County physician and
attorney, facing 40 years in prison for
allegedly selling marijuana from their medical clinic, are accusing prosecutors
of building their case on a foundation of lies and law-enforcement bias against
medical marijuana.

"I don't believe a jury of California citizens will find the conduct of
these two people was in any way criminal", said defense attorney Laurence
Lichter following the arraignment June 22 of Dr.
Marion "Mollie" Fry and husband
and attorney Dale Schafer.

Fry and Schafer return to federal court at 9 a.m. on July 22 for a
status conference before U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell.

Dr. Fry and Schafer contend that El Dorado law-enforcement officials
encouraged the couple to open a medical-marijuana
practice consistent with state
law, and then conspired with federal anti-drug
officials to enforce federal law,
in direct violation of their state constitutional duty. Further, the couple
adamantly denies the allegations raised by a prosecution witness, someone they
believe traded false accusations in return for leniency from prosecutors.

Any trial will revolve around the issue of
whether or not Fry and Schafer
were protected by federal law during the period
that the Oakland Cannabis Buyers
Club case was before the courts.

On the morning of June 22, El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies stopped
and arrested Dr. Marion "Mollie" Fry on her way to her medical office in Cool,
where she has operated a cannabis-consulting
practice since August, 1999. At the
same time, El Dorado deputies took Fry's husband, attorney Dale Schafer, into
custody at the couple's Greenwood home. After handcuffing Fry, 49, and Schafer,
51, the deputies turned the pair over to agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency, who transported them to the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento.

At the arraignment later that day, the
U.S. Attorney's Office unsealed an
indictment handed down by a federal grand jury a week earlier, accusing Fry and
Schafer of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to grow 100+
plants with known and unknown persons. Each of the two felony counts carries a
minimum sentence of five years in prison up to 40 years, a $2 million fine and
four years of supervised release.

At the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski agreed to
release Fry and Schafer on a $25,000 unsecured bond apiece. At the urging of
Asst. U.S. Attorney Anne Pings, neither will be
allowed to use marijuana, or the
FDA-approved Marinol, while awaiting trial. Dr. Fry and Schafer pled not guilty
and agreed to abide by the bail conditions. Outside the courthouse,
Lichter blasted the U.S. Attorneyís Office for prosecuting Fry and Schafer for
actions that were legal at the time under federal law.

ìMy clients are being tried under the new law for behavior conducted
under the old lawî, Lichter said.

The arrest of Fry and Schafer followed a four-year investigation,
highlighted by the DEAís search of the coupleís Greenwood home, office and a
storage facility on Sept. 28, 2001. The DEA seized the medical records of an
estimated 6,000 patients , and confiscated 32 cannabis plants and an amount of
processed marijuana from their residence. Schafer and Fry were both allowed to
use medical cannabis under the law in California.. At the time, Schafer was
campaigning for the office of El Dorado County
District Attorney, and eventually
finished third in the race won by incumbent District Attorney Gary Lacy.

The U.S. Attorneyís Office in Sacramento met with Fry and Schafer
previously in a pre-indictment conference, but
was unable to persuade the couple
to accept a plea agreement. Schafer said prosecutors broke their promise to
allow the couple to surrender if an indictment
was issued in an apparent attempt
to humiliate the professional couple.

ìWe would have come down here, but they showed up instead with guns and
handcuffsî, said Schafer, who was cooking
breakfast for his children when the El
Dorado deputies and DEA agents arrived at his doorstep.

Fry and Schafer contend that they opened the California Medical
Research Center after El Dorado County Narcotics Office Tim McNulty asked for
their help in determining who in the county were valid medical-marijuana
patients, and who were not. A deputy district attorney had also inspected the
coupleís personal cannabis garden to see that it complied with the countyís
standard. Fry and Schafer helped negotiate the
countyís 10-plant guideline along
with other members of the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis.

Schafer, who advised Doctor Fryís clients on the legalities of medical
marijuana, maintains that El Dorado law-enforcement officials are bound by the
California Constitution, namely Article 3, Section 3.5, to uphold a state law
that conflicts with federal law, unless it is
overturned at the appellate level.
No public or private interest has sued to overturn Prop. 215, so California
peace officers are duty bound to uphold the controversial measure.

ìYou canít work hand in hand with the feds and, yet, have a
constitutional obligation to support the state law when it conflicts with
federal lawî, Schafer said. ìThatís entrapment by estoppelî.

However, at the same time local authorities were ostensibly
cooperating with Fry, Schafer and other El Dorado County medical users, the
countyís application for federal marijuana-suppression funds painted a starkly
different portrait. In a 90-day Status Report for the countyís 2000-01 Byrne
Memorial Grant of $171,100, El Dorado Sheriffís Lt. William Whealton identified
the coupleís cannabis consultations as ìa shamî and questioned the validity of
their patients medical needs. Here is an excerpt:

ìIn El Dorado County, we experienced an attorney/doctor team that
specialized in helping ìpatientsî obtain the certificate that enabled them to
grow marijuana under Proposition 215. This team
then would supply the ìpatientsî
with marijuana. They also conducted seminars in the growing and cultivation of
marijuana. The process of obtaining a certificate was such a sham that we were
able to send undercover officers into the office without medical records and
obtain the certificateî. [ìPatientsî quote marks in original.]

To convince a jury Schafer and Fry must persuade them to reject
the testimony of two former employees. According
to Schafer, the employees stole
patient recommendations, and engaged in illicit activities they
later blamed on Fry and Schafer.

ìWe werenít selling marijuana out of our
office, thatís an outright lieî,
insisted Schafer. ìWeíve been smeared for years by what these snitches claimed
we were doingî.

Law enforcement remains antagonistic toward medical cannabis. Agents
denied Schafer the right to take his pain
medication before arresting him and as
a hemophiliac he was forced to have a costly infusion due to internal bleeding
caused by the ankle cuffs the couple were forced to wear during their entire
incarceration of over six and a half hours on June 22nd. Upon release that day,
Dr. Fry was devastated to learn that federal
marshalls had lost her wedding ring
and the crucifix the devout Catholic wears on a necklace.

Fry and Schafer are native Californians who led exemplary lives before
coming to the attention of law enforcement. Fry, who earned her medical degree
from the University of California at Irvine, comes from a family with a long
tradition of practicing medicine. In fact, her grandfather, Francis Marion
Pottinger was a leading expert in the treatment of tuberculosis decades before
an effective treatment was developed and he employed the use of Cannabis before
it was deemed to be illegal.
Dr. ìMollieî Fry is a breast cancer survivor, having undergone a double
mastectomy 10 years ago. Fry and Schafer have five children with three still at
home.

Please show your support for Prop. 215, SB 420 and the Doctors, Patients
and Lawyers who continue to uphold the Law in California and in so doing affirm
the will of the People of California.

Rally at the Federal Courthouse, 501 I St., Sacramento this Friday
morning, July
22nd, 2005 at 9AM.

We encourage you to bring signs that say things like "My Vote Counts" ,
"Yes on
215", "Compassion Yes, Incarceration No" , "Free My Doctor".

Donations to the Fry/Schafer Defense Fund can be sent to P.O.Box 397,
Cool, CA. 95614

http://www.docfry.com