Temecula couple known for medical-marijuana activism arrested, charged with possession, cultivation

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, September 22, 2008

By SARAH BURGE
The Press-Enterprise

TEMECULA - Police seized dozens of marijuana plants and about five pounds of dried marijuana Friday from the Temecula home of a medical user well known in Riverside County for his activism on the issue.

Martin J. Victor, 56, said Monday that he and his wife, both of whom suffer from debilitating health problems that prevent them from working, run a 10-member medicinal marijuana collective from their home.

Victor was arrested Friday on suspicion of possession of concentrated cannabis, cultivation of more than 50 marijuana plants and possession of marijuana for sale, jail records show. He was booked into the Southwest Detention Center and released Saturday morning on $50,000 bail.

Police served a search warrant on Palmetto Way about 5:30 p.m., said Lt. Scot Collins. They learned about the large number of marijuana plants being cultivated in a suburban backyard near the Pechanga Casino, Collins said, through sheriff's helicopter surveillance and complaints from neighbors.

"The people in the neighborhood weren't too happy about it," Collins said.

Collins said the operation was not in compliance with new guidelines on medical marijuana issued last month by the state attorney general's office. The Victors were not collecting sales tax, he said, and they did not have a nonprofit business license.

Collins also suggested Victor was making a profit from marijuana sales.

"I can't see how they could not have," Collins said, explaining that police seized about 70 marijuana plants, five pounds of dried marijuana and a small amount of concentrated marijuana hash, along with surveillance cameras and other equipment.

"I don't know where they're coming from in terms of that number of patients and that amount of marijuana."

Victor said he uses marijuana because he suffers from fibromyalgia and cluster headaches as a result of optic-nerve damage. His 53-year-old wife, LaVonne Victor, also a medicinal marijuana user, has multiple sclerosis, a spinal injury and experiences panic attacks.

In 2001, they were arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana and possession for sale, which could have resulted in 32-month prison terms.

The case ended in late 2002 when a judge dropped all charges against LaVonne Victor and Martin Victor pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of providing less than an ounce of marijuana to a roommate and was fined $100.

He said at the time that the roommate took the marijuana without his knowledge or consent.

Victor and another member of the collective, Dave Herrick, said they are convinced that Friday's raid was timed to coincide with Victor's testimony Monday on behalf of another medical marijuana advocate charged with battery in San Bernardino County.

"It's nothing but persecution," Herrick said. "And vindictiveness."

They have been growing medicinal marijuana in their backyard for five years, Victor said.

Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or sburge@PE.com