Lake County pot grower Lepp guilty

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


Published: Friday, September 5, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.


A Lake County man with a penchant for pushing the boundaries of medical marijuana law has been convicted in federal court of growing nearly 25,000 pot plants in plain view along Highway 20 in Upper Lake four years ago.

Eddy Lepp, 56, was convicted Tuesday by a U.S. District Court jury of conspiracy to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute more than 1,000 marijuana plants and of cultivating more than 1,000 marijuana plants, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

He faces between 10 years and life in prison and a maximum fine of $4 million when he's sentenced Dec. 1, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Joshua Eaton.

Lepp said Thursday he would appeal the verdict.

"I truly feel I was very, very railroaded by the system, and specifically by (U.S. District) Judge Marilyn Patel," he said.

Lepp said Patel, prior to trial, had refused to allow his attorneys to defend him under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person's free exercise of religion.

Lepp, who said he is Rastafarian as well as a minister of the Universal Life Church, claimed the marijuana was grown for spiritual and religious reasons.

But Patel said the number of plants being grown created too great a risk that some of them were being diverted for nonreligious uses, he said.

When federal and Lake County Sheriff's officials raided the garden in 2004, they estimated there were more than 32,000 plants of varying sizes growing in neatly tilled rows near Highway 20 next door to a commercial strawberry patch.

Lepp and High Times magazine, a publication focused on marijuana production and laws, said it was the largest single crop of medical pot seized in the United States.

The subsequent legal battle earned Lepp a High Times 2004 Freedom Fighter of the Year Award.

More-conservative medical marijuana proponents have said they're less than thrilled by Lepp's predilection for attracting the ire of federal authorities.

Investigators estimated Lepp's 2004 crop could have been worth more than $80 million when mature.

Lepp said Thursday and at trial the plants weren't his. The marijuana was being grown cooperatively by members of his church, said Lepp, founder of Eddy's Medicinal Gardens.

"All I did was make (the land) available to the ministry," he said.

Lepp had been arrested at least twice before the 2004 raid but little came from those brushes with the law.

He's also been a high-profile promoter of marijuana legalization. He lobbied Lake County supervisors to set medical marijuana standards and smoked pot openly outside the Federal Building in Santa Rosa during a 2002 demonstration in support of medical marijuana.

Lepp said he was surprised by his conviction, which took the jury only about three hours to reach.

"We made it very clear through the course of the trial I was doing everything legally," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.