On August 4, former Adelanto, California mayor Richard Kerr was found guilty of taking cannabis-related bribes while in office. According to coverage from the Los Angeles Times, Kerr was sentenced to federal prison for 14 months.

Initially, federal prosecutors sought to sentence Kerr to 46 months, but U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb reconsidered the sentence because of Kerr’s age at 66 years old, in addition to his two decades of service in the Marines, as well as family-related responsibilities.

Kerr was elected as Adelanto’s mayor in 2014, a small desert city in southwestern San Bernardino County. Kerr claimed that 40% of Adelanto residents lived in poverty at the time (as of data from 2014-2018, that percentage has decreased to 26.5%) and he wanted to make the city the “Silicon Valley of medical marijuana.”

In 2017, Kerr was arrested by federal officials for taking a $10,000 cash bribe, and also trying to find someone to burn down his restaurant (called Fat Boyz Grill) so he could collect the insurance. The following year in 2018, Kerr’s house was raided by the FBI and he was seen in handcuffs outside of his home.

Later in 2021, he was charged with accepting $75,000 in bribes while in office, which influenced approval for cannabis-related ordinances and permits.

Finally in February 2023, Kerr pleaded guilty to fraud. The most recent case revealed that he considered bribery funds as donations to a charity fund.

Carlos L. Juarez, Kerr’s attorney, defended his client by claiming that he didn’t have a college education and was naïve. “He did his darnedest to serve the people but along the way got caught up in a web of political corruption,” Juarez stated. 

Kerr called his actions the result of “stupidity” and “doing dumb things.” However, he praised how the cannabis industry benefited the city, bringing “thousands of jobs and hundreds of new homes.”

However, U.S. Attorney Sean Peterson addressed the seriousness of Kerr’s actions. “It’s not that there was just one bribe. It’s serious conduct,” Peterson said, asking the judge for Kerr to serve four years in prison as an example of the consequences for others who choose a similar path.

Many witness came forth to discuss Kerr’s behavior. One local, Edwin Snell, said that Kerr promised him and his partner that they would be permitted to open a dispensary in the city, but Kerr sold the permit “to the highest bidder.” “He promised us a dispensary and Semper Fi’d it,” said Snell. “Every person that voted for him was betrayed. Every person that voted for him was hornswoggled.”

Another resident, Diana Esmeralda Holte, said in 2017 that she applied for a dispensary license, but her attempt was rejected because she wouldn’t pay a $7,000 bribe. “I think he deserves a million years, but 20 would be reasonable,” Holte said.

In his defense, Juarez said the court case and ruling is “a complete embarrassment to Kerr.” While once well-renowned and respected in the community, he has brought his family name to shame,” he described.

Kerr’s supporters wrote letters to the judge, explaining that he grew up in poverty, has issues with alcohol, suffers from emphysema (a lung disease that causes breathlessness), and supports five of his grandchildren. Kerr’s wife in particular spotlighted his more positive decisions as mayor, which included movies in the park, a public rodeo event, and food and toy drive donations during the holidays.

Former Adelanto mayor pro tem Jermaine Wright was convicted in 2022 for accepting a $10,000 bribe from an undercover federal official claiming to be a cannabis business owner. Wright was sentenced to five years in prison.

A recent podcast called “Dreamtown: Adelanto,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, covers the city’s history and corruption, as well as Kerr’s involvement in the cannabis industry. “…reporter David Weinberg delves into what happened when a newcomer on the local council helped the city legalize weed production, and documents the fallout that happened next,” wrote High Times author Molly Lipson.

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Law enforcement officials in San Bernardino County, California have filed charges against 11 individuals after a huge subterranean cannabis cultivation operation was discovered by police. At a press conference on Monday, San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson and Sheriff Shannon Dicus announced the group faces charges of felony cultivation of marijuana, violating environmental law, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana for sale.

Law enforcement officials pegged the value of the cannabis products seized from the property in Newberry Springs at $9 million on the illicit market, although estimates from police and prosecutors have come under fire in recent months for being unrealistically inflated.

The charges against the defendants are related “to an industrial-sized subterranean illegal marijuana grow in Newberry Springs, a processing warehouse, and other properties used in conjunction with the selling, manufacturing, and distribution of cannabis,” according to a statement from law enforcement officials.

California Property Raided Twice

Police first served a search warrant at the property in the small California high desert town in August 2020, according to arrest records from the sheriff’s department. At that time, law enforcement officials discovered eight greenhouses with approximately 2,000 cannabis plants and more than 100 pounds of processed marijuana on the property. The owner of the land at the time was identified as Cheng Lin, who also faces a felony conspiracy charge. Two defendants who were detained at the site during the raid have also been charged.

Prosecutors allege that after the first raid, Lin sold the property to a second individual, Qiaoyan Liu, who also faces a felony conspiracy charge. On March 3 of this year, police raided the property a second time. During that action, officers with the sheriff’s department’s cannabis enforcement team discovered a large red shipping container known as a Conex box next to a house at the location.

“Upon searching the Conex box, deputies discovered the floor opened and were able to descend into an underground bunker,” the statement reads, according to a report from the Victorville Daily Press. “The bunker was 230 feet in length by 60 feet in width. It was constructed with over 30 Conex boxes approximately 15 feet below the ground.”

The underground facility covered 14,000 square feet and contained more than 6,000 illicit cannabis plants. Deputies also discovered a reserve of 5,500 gallons of fuel to power “generators that were used to air out the space and cure the plants,” according to Anderson.

Prosecutors also allege that “processed marijuana was found in the residence of Cheng Lin, as well as a commercial lease agreement in Cheng Lin’s name, for a commercial building in which law enforcement found numerous items used for the cultivation of marijuana and over (200) pounds of marijuana product.”

Felony Charges Filed

The district attorney is seeking a felony upgrade for the charges of illegal cultivation based on a provision of state law that permits stricter penalties for operations that harm the environment. Defendants in the case have been charged with “illegal discharge of waste and intentionally and with gross negligence causing substantial harm to public lands and other public resources.”

Anderson said that the case is indicative of law enforcement’s response to unlicensed cannabis cultivation in the area. He also vowed to seize property from owners of land used to grow cannabis illegally.

“Once we can say that these properties are known to contain a nuisance, we’re gonna take the property,” the district attorney said on Monday.

“If those folks can’t remediate the properties through appropriate sentence(s) that we may get in this particular case, then we will work with the county to try to take that property and then sell that property,” he added. “The taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for the illegal conduct that’s been engaged in here.”

Anderson said that enforcing the laws against unlicensed cannabis cultivation protects growers who have taken the effort, time, and expense of obtaining licenses to operate legitimately.

“You’re putting unfair competition on an industry that’s trying to be regulated,” Anderson said about illicit cannabis growers. He went on to compare the illicit cannabis cultivation operation to a counterfeit Amazon distribution warehouse.

“We have a bootleg Amazon selling illegal or counterfeit products out of a warehouse that’s buried underground,” he said. “Who can compete against that? Jeff Bezos couldn’t compete against that.”

Eight defendants who were on the property at the time the second search warrant was served have been charged in the case, including five defendants who have been arrested and charged. Law enforcement officials also issued arrest warrants for six additional people not yet in custody.

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On May 6, a joint statement was released stating that both Empyreal and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California “understand that each [was] acting in good faith when the stops were conducted and have come to an understanding that will enable both sides to move forward amicably.”

Empyreal transport vans were stopped by Sheriff Shannon Dicus’ deputies in November, December, and January, and had seized a total of $1.1 million in legal cannabis sales. The U.S. Department of Justice’s equitable sharing program allows the sheriff’s department to retain up to 80% of money collected through civil forfeitures. Although the state of California prohibits law enforcement from seizing legal cannabis money, Dicus transferred the seized money to the FBI, claiming that it was evidence in an ongoing investigation. The federal government has since agreed to return 100% of the money seized, although the lawsuit against Dicus continued until recently.

According to The San Bernardino Sun, Dicus believed that the seizure that his department conducted were legitimate. On Nov. 16, the Empyreal vehicle, a Ford van, was driving six feet behind a semi-truck while pulling a trailer. “During the stop, the deputy made further observations, including hearing inconsistent statements made by the driver and company representatives, that led the deputy to believe the contents of the van were illicit proceeds of unlawful drug sales,” Dicus said of the incident. Based on those Deputy J. Franco obtained a search warrant to investigate, and seized $700,000 collected from four state-licensed cannabis businesses.

A similar incident occurred on Dec. 9 with the same Empyreal Ford van, which was changing lanes without signaling. There was also a document that instructed the driver how to respond to law enforcement if pulled over. “Specifically, the document instructed the driver to ‘never say the words cannabis or marijuana’ and ‘never say the names of the banks or clients we service.’” On that date, the van was transporting $350,000. An Empyreal van was pulled over a third time on Jan. 6, but was only carrying rolled coins that weren’t affiliated with the cannabis industry.

Empyreal launched a lawsuit on Jan. 14 with the U.S. District Court, demanding that Sheriff Shannon Dicus, as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray and Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram stop targeting Empyreal, claiming that the seizure of the company’s legitimate sales was “highway robbery.” At the time, Dicus’ believed that the lawsuit was “no more than a special-interest crusade and a blatant attempt to interfere with ongoing local criminal investigations.”

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department addressed this description on May 6, sharing that while the department will continue to work against “illegal marijuana grows and criminal enterprises,” Empyreal is not included in those efforts. “Both sides also acknowledge that Empyreal is part of the solution to help with financial transparency and that San Bernardino Deputies are not highway robbers as previously reported in the media,” the department wrote in a press release on May 6.

Empyreal hired Injustice for Justice, which is a nonprofit public interest law firm that specializes in defending cases for civil forfeiture victims to lead the lawsuit. According to a press statement from Senior Attorney Dan Alban, it’s a welcome win for the firm and Empyreal. “We are pleased to have helped Empyreal achieve a successful result and return to business operations in San Bernardino County,” said Alban. “We will continue to challenge the use of civil forfeiture nationwide at the state and federal level.”

Empyreal CEO Deirdra O’Gorman also released a statement, stating that he was pleased that his company and the sheriff’s department were able to come to an agreement on the matter. “Empyreal, our financial institution clients and their state-licensed cannabis customers operate within the law, which is why we chose to bring a legal challenge to the seizures in San Bernardino County,” said O’Gorman. “Now that the funds have been returned and after meeting with the Sheriff, we are confident that we can continue serving state-legal businesses without future disruptions.”

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California courts would face a deadline to implement expungements for past cannabis-related convictions under a bill introduced in the State Assembly on Wednesday. 

The legislation sponsored by State Assemblymember Mia Bonta would require courts to update case files for marijuana-related convictions and transmit them to the California Department of Justice by January 1, 2023, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The state justice department would then be required to use the information from the courts to update its records by July 1, 2023.

“California made a promise. I’m focused on making sure that California keeps its promises,” said Bonta. “This bill would allow us to automatically seal qualifying cannabis criminal records.”

Proposition 64, the landmark 2016 voter initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in California, included provisions to carry out expungements of convictions for cannabis-related offenses no longer illegal under state law. Further legislation passed in 2018 required the state to take the lead on clearing past marijuana convictions.

But a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed earlier this month that the courts have still not processed the records for at least 34,000 cases. Under Bonta’s bill, the state Department of Justice would be directed to update the records if prosecutors or the courts fail to meet their prescribed deadlines.

“By default, the record would be sealed if the case is eligible,” said Bonta. “There are 34,000 people in the state of California… who are not able to truly and fully live their lives because there has been a failure to fully implement the law.”

No Expungements Progress in Some Counties

Some counties, including Los Angeles and Santa Clara Counties, have made significant progress in clearing past cannabis convictions. But the investigation found that some counties have not yet fully processed any cases eligible for expungement, including Riverside County, where 21,000 cases await action. Another 5,400 cases in San Bernardino County have not been cleared. The delay comes despite the counties receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds allocated to process the records.

“The court has begun working on these cases, and resources permitting, intends to complete the work by July 1, 2022,” said San Bernardino Superior Court spokesperson Julie Van Hook.

Bonta’s bill also requires the Judicial Council to collect data on cannabis conviction expungement and make regular public reports on the state’s progress. Additionally, the legislation requires the state justice department to head a public awareness campaign to inform those affected that their records have been cleared and they no longer have to disclose their past convictions. The measure also expands eligibility for expungement to some conspiracy convictions where prosecutors have the discretion to charge an offense as either a felony or a misdemeanor.

Bonta said that expunging past convictions for cannabis-related crimes is needed to address the harm and racial inequities caused by cannabis prohibition.

“Black people, people of color, especially were targeted by the War on Drugs,” said Bonta. “[The bill] is in a sense a form of reparations.”

Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Nick Stewart-Oaten, a board member of the California Public Defenders Association, applauded Bonta’s proposed legislation.

“For decades, the justice system quickly and enthusiastically destroyed the lives of men, women, and children accused of nonviolent marijuana offenses—this bill simply requires the system to act with similar enthusiasm and speed when giving the formerly convicted back their lives,” Stewart-Oaten said in a statement.

The legislation is also supported by the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for the release of all people incarcerated for cannabis offenses. Gracie Burger, the group’s state policy director, said in a statement that Bonta’s bill would “ensure that California delivers on its overdue promise to those harmed by the War on Drugs.”

So far, no groups have expressed opposition to the legislation. Riverside Superior Court spokesperson Marita Ford wrote in an email that the “court doesn’t really have any comment on the pending legislation but if it is passed, we will of course ensure compliance.”

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