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SANTA ROSA, CA -- Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Antolini didn’t rule on the writ of habeas corpus for jailed medical marijuana patient Will Foster today.
But the judge certainly tipped his hand.
And the cards don’t look so good for the defendant.
Foster’s attorney requested that argument on the matter be delayed for two weeks because the defense received the prosecution’s opposition papers late. “Unless the Court is inclined to grant our petition…” the public defender said hopefully. “That’s not where I’m headed,” Judge Antolini admitted.
On that ominous note, Foster’s supporters left the courtroom and entered a fortnight of suspense.
As excruciating as it is for Foster’s friends and family, ominous suspense appears to be an all too fitting mood for this case.
Given the full balance of events, Foster’s story seems less like a legal saga and more like the stuff of classic horror movies. His tale is like one from the early days of cinema: a daring man, having somehow provoked an ancient curse, is pursued relentlessly by a slow-plodding but frighteningly strong mummy. It follows him at all costs, across borders and over a long span of years, in a chase that threatens to wear down his resolve. Many times, he appears to have defeated it, only for it to rise again and renew its trudging pursuit.
Will Foster is that man, and the state of Oklahoma is that mummy. It was awakened long ago, in 1995, when Foster was busted in the “Sooner State” for growing a small marijuana garden. Foster, who suffers from degenerative arthritis, ostensibly intended the yield for personal medical use. Unfortunately, Oklahoma has no medical use laws, and the punishment for cultivation can be extraordinarily harsh. Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison upon conviction, but that term was reduced to 20 years after a successful appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Foster served several years in prison before being released on parole and heading for California in 2001.
Foster maintains that he was permitted to transfer his parole to the more marijuana-friendly state, but Oklahoma officials tried to change their mind when California didn’t keep him on parole as long as anticipated. Almost as soon as Foster left its borders, Oklahoma began trudging after him again.
Foster is not one to give up, however.
He beat an extradition attempt in 2006, but it barely bought him time to catch his breath. According to Foster, Oklahoma parole officials announced that their original calculations had undershot the length of his parole period by a number of years. When Foster refused to return to his native state to finish serving this term voluntarily, Oklahoma issued an extradition warrant alleging he had violated his parole.
Nothing came of that order immediately, since Foster was living a quiet new life in northern California. But, eventually, Oklahoma’s long arms came reaching for him over the rolling, bovine-rich hills of Sonoma County.
As every film buff knows, there’s no hiding from the mummy.
Foster fell into the clutches of law enforcement this last time when he was busted for a small medical marijuana grow at the house of his girlfriend Susie Mueller. A tip from a jealous estranged husband led the agents there, and they expected to find a grow much larger than the seven-plant operation they uncovered. Nonetheless, they arrested Foster and Mueller, and they took Mueller’s youngest daughter into custody as an endangered child.
Charges against the couple were ultimately dropped due to their compliance with state medical marijuana law, but authorities held onto Foster because of his Oklahoma warrant. When California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed off on the extradition, Foster said he did so without first learning the facts of the case. Whether true or not, there may be no redress for Foster at this juncture.
“I don’t know what I can do,” Judge Antolini said in court today, as the jailed Foster sat glumly in the jury box and watched. “I have a governor-signed order here.”
But the defense would like the judge to go deeper and examine the circumstances that Foster believes Governor Schwarzenegger overlooked.
To achieve this goal, the defense is relying on Foster’s writ of habeas corpus. This legal manuever is an order requiring that an inmate be brought to court so that a judge can determine whether that inmate is imprisoned unlawfully. For Foster to be successful, he would have to show that the court ordering his imprisonment made an error of fact or law, but it appears that his judge is reluctant to look into those matters.
In court today, Judge Antolini expressed doubts that he had jurisdiction to rule on the factual basis of the extradition warrant. In order to do so, he said, he would have to see case law that establishes his judicial right to review the issue of whether or not there had been a parole violation. “It’s either there or it’s not,” Judge Antolini said of such case law. “It’s as simple as that.”
In spite of the judge’s comment, those following the case know that it’s no simple matter. And they know that the suspense of the next two weeks is just another chapter in a story that’s far from over. The mummy can walk across oceans, and it does not stop until it has its satisfaction. Foster, as the object of its desire, has a dubious honor that is at once flattering and horrific.
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