SUIT FILED FOR MEMO PARKER, November 1, 2008

    Memo Parker's lawyer has filed a federal lawsuit for alleged civil rights violations Parker says he sustained during his second arrest in a two-year-long series of marijuana events in Ukiah.
    The complaint was filed Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. It names seven defendants: Robert Nishiyama, Peter Hoyle, Thomas Allman, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the county of Mendocino and 100 "Does"  as stated in the complaint filed by J. David Nick and E.D. Lerman.

Chronology of the Cases:
   •  On Oct. 16, 2006, brothers Memo Parker and Mark Parker were arrested on a search warrant served at two Gardens Avenue locations. At that time, officers seized 190 marijuana plants, 262 smaller "clone" plants and 170 pounds of processed marijuana. It was stated at the time that both Memo and Mark Parker had medical marijuana recommendations.
   •  In August of 2007, a jury voted 11-1 that Mark Parker was not guilty of managing a location for the production of a controlled substance. He was also acquitted of all other charges.
     The same jury that let Mark Parker walk then voted 10-2 to convict Memo Parker. Because jury members said that more deliberating would not yield a unanimous decision, a mistrial was declared.
   •  On Sept. 5, Deputy District Attorney James Nerli said that the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office would retry Mark and Memo Parker.
   •  Then, in February 2008, authorities returned to the Gardens Avenue locations of Memo Parker and in a raid took 297 marijuana plants and 34 pounds of processed marijuana, police reports stated. Memo Parker was arrested at that time on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana for sale and possession of marijuana for sale.     Following the second arrest, Parker pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit acts injurious to public health or morality. By pleading as he did, all other charges against him were dropped.
    • The most recent event involving Parker prior to when the complaint was filed was when he entered Mendocino County Jail in mid-August to begin serving a 180-day sentence.
   •  In a press release last week from one of Parker's attorneys, J. David Nick, Nick stated that the lawsuit focuses on a practice of questioning those arrested "without informed consent under the Miranda rights and illegal interrogations of suspects who are represented by counsel." In the press release, Nick also states that the Sheriff's Office uses the term illegal commercial growers' and the idea that all marijuana sales are illegal' to take away rights from medical marijuana growers.
    • Nick stated that the second arrest of Parker in February is when Parker was allegedly interrogated unlawfully by the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force. According to Nick, the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution grant Parker rights which were violated during the second arrest.