Something is bunk in the town of Cool. Mainly the feds, if you ask J. Tony Serra.
First the FBI raided his clients' med-pot business in a strip mall in the El Dorado County, Calif., town in 2001. Then last year, the Sacramento U.S. Attorney's office indicted them.
Now federal prosecutors are trying to throw Serra off the case, in which he represents wife and husband Marion Fry and Dale Schafer -- a doctor and lawyer, respectively -- against charges of manufacturing and conspiring to distribute pot.
"We've got a hell of a defense, and now they're trying to oust us," Serra said Thursday. If he's allowed to stay on the case, Serra plans to say his clients acted on the advice of counsel, which he said would be the first time this argument has ever been used against federal charges levied at medical-pot dealers.
But prosecutors say a conflict should keep him from making that case. They argue that the attorneys with whom Serra shares his San Francisco office constitute a law firm -- and that since a lawyer who used to work in Serra's office had represented a witness cooperating against his clients, Serra should be disqualified.
"They represented a witness, and now they want to turn around and cross-examine that person," said Patty Pontello, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of California.
The case is somewhat complicated by the fact that Serra heads to federal prison next week to begin serving a 10-month tax-evasion sentence.
