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“…Paul Lucas won’t be the last to have been left drooling and limping pathetically in an erratic loop by one too many encounters with the everlasting car wreck of the DPOC Central Committee.”
Last we left our hero Paul Lucas, toward the end of 2011, he was living in Orange, running a legally registered and licensed medical marijuana collective, suffering more maladies than you can count on one hand due to a lifelong auto-immune deficiency and type 1 diabetes, treated as a pariah by much of the Orange County Democratic Party, but liked and missed by many more of us.
But before we relate the fateful events of 10/26/2011 – the police raid that turned Paul’s life upside down for a while – there are a few threads in the narrative we have to get started, a few characters we have to introduce, and sure enough, here goes:
1. Cherchez la femme.
For about a year and a half before the events in question, Paul had had a girlfriend – hell, let’s call her Sasha – with a history of methamphetamine abuse. Throughout the vast bulk of the time they were together she stayed off that bad stuff, but every once in a while, as people will do, she would relapse.
Paul used to take Sasha to Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings to help her keep straight. At one meeting just a few days before the raid, Paul noticed a “creepy-looking Latino guy with a goatee mad-dogging” him, but didn’t think much of it – druggies and ex-druggies, you know, they can be a little weird. We later learned this to be Gonzaldo Cetina – an undercover cop not above stalking his prey at their 12-step meetings. If we can find a picture of him we will post it.
And then you need to know this: ALSO a few days before the raid Paul found a small lump of meth in the girl-bag that Sasha used to keep at his place; disappointed in her, he put this lump (which he estimates to have been about a quarter-gram) into a safe in his bathroom, to confront her with it next time she came by.
2. “Name Three and Go Free.”
A little before that, in darkest Buena Park, some damn junkie had gotten himself busted. There’s a standard policy among most drug cops called “name three and go free” – pretty self-explanatory – if you give up the names and addresses of three other people you believe may be in possession of illicit substances, they’ll let you off. Is this a good policy? Does it help the law go after ever bigger fish, or just to cast a wider and wider net, as in the attempt to tar every young man in certain neighborhoods with a gang affiliation, or the government’s insatiable drive to know all about all of us? Who knows? But this weak cat, probably thinking of Sasha, opted to name Paul Lucas’ apartment in Orange as a place where the cops might find some meth.
We now know the identity of this snitch, which we won’t print. I believe I have convinced Paul to take this course of action: “When you have the chance, confront him … say you know what he did … and then say you forgive him. These officers are good at scaring and cajoling people – that’s what they do.” (Needless to say, when Paul was arrested he did NOT “name three and go free” – he’s not the sort of guy who would do that, and doesn’t know any big drug users anyway.)
3. Getting the Warrant – Important Lesson Here for All of You!
The desperate unreliable testimony of a guy like our Buena Park junkie friend, however, is not enough for the police to get a warrant to raid someone’s apartment like they did to Paul’s on 10/26/2011. So they surveilled Paul for a while. Eventually, on 10/25, in darkest Huntington Beach, they caught him talking to somebody while sitting in his car. This was enough for them to get a warrant. They even admit that NO TRANSACTION OCCURRED. Not kidding. This is all right here in the PC hearing document, pages 56-57 and 53.
So, American citizens, this is your lesson for today. If you don’t want what happened to Paul to happen to you, if you don’t want to go through two-and-a-half years of legal hell, then DON’T TALK TO ANYBODY WHILE YOU ARE SITTING IN YOUR PARKED CAR. Got that?
4. A Bit on Paul’s Collective, “Orange County Organics.”
It was hard for me to understand – so I figured it might be for you as well – a couple of things: Why would a nonprofit “collective” consisting of two patients and two growers have $9500 in cash floating around; and why were the cash and pot at Paul’s Orange apartment if his collective was legal and licensed in Garden Grove? So here are the answers:
Paul, his now-deceased sister, and his two north-Cal grower partners were just the original four collective members; at the time of the raid there were 23 “members” or patients in the collective; $8000 was well within the nonprofit range for a collective of that size. (The extra $1500 or so was rent money from Paul’s roommate – including rolled coins – they took it all.)
Paul formed the corporation in the spring of 2010, originally just as a way to get himself and his cancer-stricken Iraq-veteran sister their medicine. Over the next year he looked for places in Garden Grove to open a shop, but the law at the time (as now) was like the wild west. Everyone was breaking the law, but Paul was as compliant as possible, paying sales taxes and everything.
Garden Grove came out with a permitting process for shops in July 2011 and Paul applied, but instead of turning in his application took a wait and see approach. Sure enough, this was the high point of the Federal raids in California, and each of these “permitted” locations was just being set up to be raided and its owners arrested. Not only that, even though he had opened a bank account for Orange County Organics (see below) banks were freezing accounts of collectives and the Feds were seizing their assets. So the wise thing was to keep everything at home, which at that point was an apartment in Orange.
5. The Arresting Officers
I swear to God there are good cops, great cops even, in Orange County. And I promise we will write about them some day. It’s just that the MONSTERS tend to get our attention. Milton had the same problem, I’ve heard, when he wrote Paradise Lost – the devils were so much more interesting to write about than the angels. Same thing when it came to Dante‘s Divine Comedy – raging about Hell just flows more naturally than rhapsodizing about Heaven. As the great novelist Tolstoy observed, “Every happy family is the same, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
When Paul told me seven Buena Park cops raided his place on 10/26/2011, I asked him “Was one of them James Woo?” Just kind of showing off that I knew the name of a Buena Park cop – Woo is the sadistic, self-infatuated asshole who so much enjoyed putting away 16-year old Jesus Aguirre into Pelican Bay for life. Paul laughed, “No, but one of them claimed to be.” Turns out Detective Alex Hong, who later was the one to testify against Paul in court, likes to boast “I’m Jimmy Woo!” I guess some of them consider Woo to be a badass of the sort they aspire to.
Hong actually DOES have something in common with Woo, besides both being brutal buffoonish Buena Park cops and being Korean-American – they have BOTH recently been demoted from detective to common street patrolmen! Due to POBR (the infamous “Peace Officers Bill of Rights”) we don’t know why, but it sounds like a good call, eh?
But this next cat really deserves an introductory fanfare:
Meet “The YAK!!!”
The rudest and most ill-behaved of the contingent that came to Paul’s that night was a hulking, newly minted narcotics detective named Steve Yakubovsky, nicknamed “The Yak.” We’ll get into what he did at the raid of Paul’s house later, but he’d already had quite a history on the force, unsurprisingly leading to his now being unemployed a “stay-at-home dad.” (Again, POBR prevents us from knowing the real reason.)
It was he and Officer Ron Furtado who murdered Juan Herrera back in 2004 at the end of a car chase; Furtado pulled the trigger shooting Herrera square in the head (claiming falsely that he thought he was reaching for a gun); it was the Yak who pinned Juan to the fence with his car so Furtado could do it. This shooting cost Buena Park a whopping $5 million in a wrongful death suit, which is being paid to Herrera’s young daughter Violeta over the course of her lifetime.
Furtado is now an investigator in Riverside, and as I said, Yakubovsky is off the force and looking for work …. but this did NOT happen as a result of the Herrera shooting. In fact, he was promoted to detective after that – car theft detective – and then a few years later, SHORTLY before the raid on Paul, onto the highly desired Narcotics Investigators Unit. And it’s thanks to the loose-lipped Yak that we now know the secret hazing ritual that all OC Narcotics detectives go through – they must down a “red Solo cup” of tequila mixed with tabasco and cholula. They call that getting “fired IN” to the unit.
Perfect, eh? Extreme abuse of the legally sanctioned drug alcohol, to give one strength and cred for kicking down the doors of those who would dare to purvey the medicinal weed.
How do we know this? Because the Yak yaks about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING on his completely unprotected Facebook page. (A good rule of thumb in this age of Social Media – it’s sometimes not a good idea to offend a resourceful person with lots of time on their hands, like for example Paul Lucas.) Here we see the Yak boasting of being “fired in” six days before the Paul Lucas raid. Here we see him just a couple weeks later, on Nov 9, wishing that he could quit his new job. And here we see his wife Tiffany revealing that he was driven off the force by his fellow cops.
Linked-in reveals the Yak to have been unsuccessfully seeking employment, for quite a while, in shoplifting prevention at various drug stores. But I won’t go on, as you are not yet equipped to feel the proper schadenfreude over this, having not yet read about his behavior at Chez Lucas.
****
Damn, will you take a look at the time! I guess this story will have to be a THREE-parter.
- The Raid!
- The Charges!
- The Final Settlement!
- Nadia Davis Lockyer!
What a long strange trip it’s been!
The biggest surprise here is that Paul Lucas [redacted] ….
[Editor’s note: you don’t get to say things like that about someone anonymously here, you ass. If you want it published, prepare to own it.]
hey – i thought i already spammed that one. How did it end up on your radar?
I don’t think it was spammed when I got to it. Anyway, I get e-mail notifications of unapproved comments, don’t you?
If you want to get a peak into cop culture here in Orange County hit the links on the Yak paragraph about being fired in, wanting to quit his job and his wife talking about his fellow officers pushing him out of the police department.
“..they caught him talking to somebody while sitting in his car.”
Was this “somebody” a random person or someone with a known drug offense background?
I’ve been thinking about that and I don’t even think it should be relevant. Some dude or girl could stop by and ask you for directions. How do you know what kind of record they might have?
“running a legally registered and licensed medical marijuana collective,” VN
I checked the AG website for the required forms (fed and state) and found nothing. I don’t see how anyone can have a legal co-op MJ business when the sellers can’t form a illegal drug business.
I have no problem with MJ being taken off of the fed drug list, but until that happens, you should grow your own for personal use, and hope the druggies from next door don’t break into your house and steal your stash.
Its been retired since Oct 2001. It would be more notable if you found it. The corporation was basically folded and rendered inactive due to the volatile nature of the industry that makes it impossible to do it “The right way”, as that is left to interpretation down to the very officer that kicks in your door. Even if one is opposed to cannabis in one way or another, one should be quite concerned about the violations of the 4th, 6th, and 14th amendment(s) in this area. Because if they don’t have cannabis to attack, what will they look for to take its place next?
At the time the medical Cannabis industry was being ran through a gauntlet of setbacks and victories almost weekly. It took about 2 years before the law was set via court cases and appellate law to have it settled to the point it is in now which is light years better (Legally speaking) than it was back in 2011. Two cases, Colvin and Jackson are the guiding cases at this point. When Colorado and Washington state voted in their recreational laws that went into effect in January the whole police industry of raiding dispensaries for profit came to a screeching halt. The police had to start working on real crimes after that to their chagrin. It is now in a state of limbo waiting for the next case to spark new battles.
At current, agencies face lawsuits if they do anything hinky. It’s all a mess. If we allow a corner market to sell alcohol, tobacco, then there should not be this type of violence directed towards those who choose to use cannabis, either medically or medicinally. There’s just something about cannabis that drives politicians crazy. It’s unexplainable.
cook, you did see the permit I posted in the story. You don’t think that’s a counterfeit do you?
a sellers permit is not a license to sell MJ.
It is a catch-22. You need to be a registered charitable trust per the state law, but you can’t get the non=profit ID number from the Fed’s cause they have it as illegal.
catch 22 is putting it lightly. In most cases when a municipality portends to help dispensaries come into compliance, it a ruse to get the info used against them to be prosecuted. In almost ALL cases, not even the regulating agencies have staff that are familiar with the regulations. It took me two months just to get someone at the BOE, who had read the guiding documents and statement of law about compliance and the elements of compliance. I had to guide them through their own process on several levels which I could only do by reading their own rules.
If I knew how to post the documents in here for you to read, I would. Vern, how do I get the guiding documents on compliance here in this blog?
e-mail ’em to me
Okay. This is them?
Notated 2007 BOE Statement on Sales taxes on MMJ and legality – http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Notated-2007-BOEStatementonSalestaxesonMMJandlegality.pdf
AND
2010 BOE Amendment Reminder – http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2010-BOE-Amendment-Reminder.pdf
Just sayin’ ….. “America suffering from clown shortage”
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/18/america-suffering-from-clown-shortage/20832582/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl15|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D443960?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058&
Man, things must be getting thin.
Leave it to Skalleywag (is that a real name?) and FOX news to illustrate my point:
It’s the same circus, different clowns.
That bone mote [sic] got a better reaction on Lib OC.
As for “his real name”: we know who skallywag is in real life. He can be fed to the wolves as necessary. (So far as you know, skally, that is only a metaphor.)
What’s next? Will we have special work visa permits to stem the critical “Clown Shortage”? Will the UAW try to organize a Clowns Union to raise salaries and attract more to the field? Federal student loan forgiveness to Clown College? Or else, will we have ICE sweeps of Circuses for undocumented clowns laboring at yet another “Job Americans Won’t Do?” This could get….wait for it….SERIOUS!
“I’ve been thinking about that and I don’t even think it should be relevant. Some dude or girl could stop by and ask you for directions. How do you know what kind of record they might have?”
Vern – The relevancy would be “known association.” If the person was not known to be involved in drugs or it was not a known drug transaction area the cops would not have had reasonable cause to add that event to substantiation for a search warrant.
Skallywag,
If you think the 4th amendment is actually respected, you are sadly mistaken. Pg 53 the office says he didnt see anything. Later he says thats why they got the warrant. That brief encounter. The guy got arrested for something. I believe it was some sort of sexual offense. may be narcotic. But I recall that day and I know who the guy is. When I was leaving that area in HB, a buena park pd car damn ear Tboned me at an intersection. It had 3 guys in it that looked like they just stole a police car. So it didnt really seem suspicious to me a the time.
Vern: “I’ve been thinking about that and I don’t even think it should be relevant. Some dude or girl could stop by and ask you for directions. How do you know what kind of record they might have?”
Now we have a much clearer idea of that Vern. Care to print a clarification on that point?
Nope.
It’s still the case, just as I said, that the cops were able to get a warrant from a judge simply because of witnessing a perfectly innocent conversation through a car window. No transaction. No discussion of anything illicit, recorded or not. It could happen to you or me. Just like I said.
No –
I doubt if you or I would be conversing through an open car window to someone who was arrested for a sexual offense or narcotics. That was not likely “an innocent conversation” – try something else.
If somebody bent over and asked me the time, I would not have asked them for their rap sheet, but told them the time. And if you think it was “not likely an innocent conversation,” that’s on YOUR dirty mind.
skally, that may be the stupidest thing you’ve ever written.
Would you talk to me through an open car window? Can you swear that I don’t have any arrests? If you would talk to me, and if I have such a history — I don’t, by the way, or at least that’s my story — then you would favor sacrificing your own rights even if you acted in completely blissful ignorance. That you don’t care about such rights isn’t surprising, but your imagining that you’re magically protected from having such an interaction with a person with a record truly is.
Lucas himself said the guy was arrested for a sex or narcotics offense – it does not matter if Lucas knew that or not (I suspect he did) – the cops knew that – and that is all they needed.
Well, I hope that same guy comes by your truck and asks you for directions some day, and the cops are watching.
I will probably be okay in that instance as I will not have a “name 3 & go free” count against me.
Well, then aren’t you just a blessed individual? And don’t worry about the erosion of the 4th amendment, as long as it never affects you personally.
Now go play games somewhere else while the rest of us keep fighting for our Constitution.
I have HIGH hopes about the Nadia portion.
Might it include HAMBURGER MARY’S content (that should be generic enough to stave of Diamonds Bat Shit rebuttal)?
Want next installment of The ToPL.
Now!
LOL… me and Paul are both enjoying dragging it out. Newsflash – now it’s gonna be four parts. At least.
And I’m gonna write some non-PL stuff first…
Well, you can be more anxious as I have just discovered that the YAK has discovered this blog post and he and his wife have blocked me on facebook so I cant see their page. So I think in the next installment I’ll include the email I’m going to send to Professional Standards officer Frank Nunes at the Buena Park PD. Or maybe Ill just publish this guys street address and home and cell phone number(s).
Hey Yak, its kinda hard to be UNDERCOVER when you don’t know how to place privacy controls on your facebook page.
No, Paul, we are not publishing the Yak’s address and numbers. Settle down.
The ever-execrable Dan C has written what he awkwardly calls a “spoiler alert” to this series, over on his sty. Go ahead, check it out, the comments section is turning fun. (Don’t know why I do his pathetic blog this favor)
http://www.theliberaloc.com/2014/02/19/spoiler-alert-on-the-ojs-paul-lucas-story/
It’s as error-ridden AND mean-spirited as we’ve come to expect from him and his buddy Matt. He’s now fixed where he called Buena Park “Brea” and where he called grams “ounces” and where he said less than 3 grams of meth is “the size of a golf ball” – but it remains pure Dan C BS.
It was a VERY SMALL golf ball. Used in a flea circus!
I often wish I could re-write my comments over there like I do here.
1/4 gram (Paul’s estimation) = a caper.
2.75 grams (cops’ claim) = a marble.
3 ounces (Dan’s original claim) = a wild horse melon. (See my T-Rack Faceplant / OVC piece, the Uncle Paul section.)
Hey Fella’s,
Golly Gee, would you like to come over on your day off for some scrumptus burgers and lemonade?
It might get a little Kra-Kra and silly. U R on your own. BAM! Dat’s Da BOMB Stuff at that house.
What the fuck is this guy playing? Fine family man with lemonade, but repeatedly hangs his “family” out there as props. That’s more disgusting than my anonominity.
Notice, I deliberately avoiding insulting Dan by not mis-spelling his name, that is a seemingly tasteless, horrible offense.
Yeah, but his writing style is its own punishment. You’re good at what you do.
Why the illegal meth?
Paul you really screwed up. So take the time at the farm to air-out and detoxify.
Seems to me anyone who has type 1 diabetes and is taking meth has a death wish.
the pop was decriminalized not the meth.
I always thought of you as a good guy, I recommend you keep squeaky clean if you are going to continue MJ use.
Hope to see you sometime in the future.
Cook, could you for once READ THE STORY you’re commenting on before mouthing off?
1. NOBODY HAS ACCUSED Paul of USING meth. He has severe atrial fibrillation – it would kill him in a … heartbeat!
2. Nobody’s even accusing him of SELLING meth. He WAS in possession of a tiny amount of it, and the explanation is in the story above – look under “1. Cherchez La Femme.” And nobody’s disputed that account either. But he WAS in possession of some meth, so that’s what they’re getting him for – it’s the only thing they had left, to save face.
Nameless was right in a previous comment – Paul shoulda flushed that shit down the toilet instead of sticking it in a safe to confront his girlfriend with it later. Oh well, live and learn…
You guys are really ruining my part 3 and 4. But I’m-a ignore you-all and write ‘em anyway. After my Wendy Leece interview and my Mark Denny-inspired “Golden Age of OC GOP Vote Fraud.”
why do you keep using different names? I mean we all know who you are in all your iterations. And why is it that you are so obsessed with me? I mean you don’t seem to care at all about the 4th 14th and 6th amendments one bit.
No, cook is cook. Skallywag is Junior. And they’re both generally clueless, but skallywag is the more heartless one.
skallywag is only scallywag on this blog – however, he may soon become “heartless scallywag” – quite fitting ……
Skallywag, junior, Rex, the Wonder Dog.
How obvious is it?
Don’t know Rex or the Wonder Dog – however, the rest is as obvious as I want it to be.
Could be. Rex the Wonder Dog seems a lot brighter than the others.
I read the part about a GF, you should have tossed that crap.
I would not do any time for another’s crime, but you can make your own choices.
I know about close people and family. When I find a heroin kit I destroy it, I don’t save it for a future confrontation. But I have young grandkids here and have a zero tolerance policy.
There is a place for discovered meth and that is the TOILET. unfortunately, Paul is learning that the hard way.
Fucked up deal all around, but why someone who did not use hard drugs would keep them makes me question their intelligence.
BAD STUFF FOLKS
I just got back form the Buena Park PD and they gave me back my cannabis. They have not returned the glass jars that are very expensive and I will be asking for them back too.
The weed has to be dried and ruined, after this time, I suspect.
But I call in to question your claim about “very expensive”. Unless you are getting ripped off, there are several packaging companies that sell “mason jars” or “420 jars” from any where from $3.08 to $9.99 depending on size.
If you are talking about doing 3 months in county, what the heck is $400 in hardware.
NOTE TO PAUL: Without revealing my “super secret villain” identity to Greg, Dan and Matt, I would suggest that you talk to you anklet provider, we generally offer a 30% CASH discount to “clients”.
Talk to your PO (sentencing advisor), you will likely shave 30% off if you pass the attitude test. Anklets in OC are running about $40. per day. Small price to stay out of Central or Lacey.
The jars mean nothing unless you are REALLY POOR, in which case you have better things to worry about than this story.
You’re not a supervillain. See, that’s two compliments in as many minutes!
I visited the Liberal (?) OC blog and couldn’t shake the impression of mean high school girls nya-nya-nyaaaaing a less popular girl at the lunchroom. Everyone knows the red solo cup and I get mr c’s holier-than-thou attitude about never using drugs or alcohol or been arrested…still I feel dirty after bathing in his pristine blog. Must take shower now!
Yes, that is perfectly understandable.
High school girl. I think we have found the Dan Cmieleski profile. Hard to believe he is an adult.
Except he’s not exactly the “popular girl” in real life – but he IS the queen of his own blog!
Well, true. Queen in his own mind.
Vern – “Well, then aren’t you just a blessed individual? And don’t worry about the erosion of the 4th amendment, as long as it never affects you personally. Now go play games somewhere else while the rest of us keep fighting for our Constitution.”
And you don’t seem to be concerned about the erosion of the First Amendment in regards to the FCC planting themselves in newsrooms across the country. If it was a Bush Admin. pulling that shit you would be all over it – hypocrite!
Now THERE’S a shiny object! Look! SQUIRREL!!!
So,…when do we get the next installment?
Excellent article showcasing the collusion between OC law enforcement and criminal civilian trash. And my question to Tony Rackauckas remains unanswered – under what authority can law enforcement in Orange County, CA use civilian criminals to commit crimes for them (harassment to attempted murder and fleeing the scene). Is the DA of Orange County, CA aware that this occurs?
That’s a rhetorical question right? lol. You know that answer already just like I do.