Appeal of judge’s ruling delays Red Bluff cultivation trial

RED BLUFF — About to enter its third year, the marijuana case against two Red Bluff men was prolonged once more Tuesday, this time pending the decision of a state appellate court.

Proceedings for Joseph Froome, 49, and his son-in-law Daniel Ludwig, 28, were continued to 9 a.m. Nov. 21 in Tehama County Superior Court.

The two are charged with cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale in connection with an Oct. 21, 2009, raid on a Baker Road warehouse.

Froome also faces eight counts of money laundering, Janet O’Neill reports in the Redding Record Searchlight.

Both maintain they were running a legitimate medical marijuana collective at the time agents seized more than 400 plants and 30 pounds of drying cannabis.

Last month, Judge S. William Abel, the retired Colusa County Superior Court jurist assigned to the case, denied a defense motion that sought to bar testimony and argument at the trial — which was to have started this week — that patients in a collective could neither distribute cannabis nor exchange money.

The trial date was vacated when Oakland defense attorneys William Panzer and James Silva advised they would seek a reversal of Abel’s ruling.

That ruling was challenged Monday in the 3rd District Court of Appeal, Silva told the judge Tuesday.

“Well, I’m anxious to hear,” Abel said.

Over the course of the case, the defense repeatedly has challenged interpretations of state law regarding medicinal cannabis.

Panzer, who was not in court this week, is a co-author of Proposition 215, California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

The position that members of a collective can neither distribute cannabis nor exchange money, which the defense says is contrary to the law, is one that’s “being touted across the state” by prosecutors, Silva said after the hearing.

“We think this issue is particularly important,” he said.

Froome is a longtime Red Bluff event promoter and has served on the annual rodeo’s board of directors.