Medical-pot grower plans to sue over shootout fallout

The medical-marijuana activist who survived a pre-dawn shootout at his Kirkland-area home says he plans to sue the King County Sheriff's Office after the subsequent investigation turned into what he called a prolonged marijuana raid, resulting in the seizure of hundreds of marijuana plants.

Medical-marijuana proponents say the situation highlights how the state's vaguely worded laws make the issue troublesome for providers as well as law enforcement.

Steve Sarich, 59, exchanged gunfire early Monday with armed robbers who broke into the home where he operates CannaCare, an organization that provides marijuana plants to patients.

Five people were eventually arrested, including one man who was critically wounded in the exchange of gunfire with Sarich, a licensed medical-marijuana grower.

Three of the suspects appeared in court Tuesday as prosecutors filed documents that shed some light on the robbery. One of the alleged participants once worked with Sarich, according to the documents.

Once King County sheriff's deputies arrived at his home, Sarich said, they didn't just focus on the robbery. He said they sealed off his house, searched it and confiscated hundreds of marijuana plants and cuttings and other material they said was over the state's legal limit for medical marijuana.

"This was a shooting scene. That's what this was supposed to be about," said Sarich, 59, an outspoken and highly visible advocate. "The brass wanted to turn it into something else."

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said a search of Sarich's home after the shootout turned up "well over 300 plants," along with processed marijuana, baked and frozen goods, "green butter" and chocolate — all presumably made with marijuana. He said detectives also found "a display case with pipes for sale."

Urquhart said deputies left Sarich and his girlfriend 30 plants and 48 ounces of processed marijuana each.

Urquhart defended the seizure of the rest of the marijuana plants, saying the law is clear on the amount of marijuana licensed providers are allowed to have.

He said detectives will forward their findings to the King County Prosecutor's Office to determine whether Sarich will face charges for exceeding the limit. However, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has been loath to file charges in similar cases.

"I won't be charged with anything," Sarich predicted.

What's a plant?

He disputes the number of plants deputies claimed they took from his home — the crux of the dispute apparently being what constitutes a plant.

The Washington State Department of Health allows a 60-day supply for individuals, which is defined as 24 ounces of processed pot and 15 plants, unless a patient has a proven medical need for more. Urquhart confirmed that Sarich and his girlfriend were authorized to have 30 plants and 48 ounces each for personal use. Sarich said he was within his legal limits for plants, but had "clones" or cuttings from the plants that police also counted as individual plants.

The Department of Health doesn't make a distinction as to the size of a plant.

"We had cuttings that were here. They left some of those. I don't think they have roots at this point. We don't have room for 350 plants," Sarich said. "No matter what, if it doesn't have roots on it, it's not a plant."

Philip Dawdy, campaign director of Sensible Washington, a political committee dedicated to legalizing marijuana in Washington state, also said the law isn't clear.

"The guidelines that came down from Department of Health are 15 plants. They don't define whether they're mature, flowering plants or little baby sproutlings. And that's a problem because everybody thinks marijuana is an easy plant to grow. It's not."

Five suspects

Sheriff's officials said Tuesday that five people were involved in the home-invasion robbery.

One suspect, a 19-year-old Renton man who was shot by Sarich, was transferred Tuesday from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to an unspecified medical facility in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Detectives have arrested three other men and a juvenile male in connection with the break-in and shootout. The adults were booked into the King County Jail on Monday, while the 17-year-old was booked into the county's juvenile-detention facility.

All are being held on investigation of robbery, but detectives "still have to ascertain their individual roles, because not all of them were in the house," Urquhart said.

Three of the suspects made initial court appearances Tuesday:

Andrew "Drew" J.J. Carrigan is a former employee of Sarich's, according to the statement of probable cause submitted in court Tuesday. Carrigan, 19 and unemployed, was found "squatting in an abandoned house" in Bellevue on Monday, the statement says. He is being held on $250,000 bail.

Jonathan Michael Buell, 18, is an unemployed cook from Bellevue, the statement says. He was arrested near Sarich's house and is accused of being a lookout during the robbery, according to the statement. His bail was set at $300,000.

The 17-year-old suspect is a student, though the probable-cause statement doesn't say what school he attends. He was ordered held in secure detention at the juvenile-detention center.

Another 19-year-old suspect is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday. That man, who is also from Bellevue, was arrested in July for possession of marijuana, but the case against him was dismissed in January after he proved he was an authorized medical-marijuana user, court records show.

No link seen

Sheriff's officials in both King and Pierce counties say there's no apparent connection between the break-in at Sarich's home and last week's attack on Mike Howard, a medical-marijuana patient from Orting who died Saturday, four days after being struck in the head by an unknown assailant.

Howard, 38, a patient of Sarich's CannaCare, was conscious and talking after his 18-year-old girlfriend called 911 and deputies responded to their house around 4:30 a.m. March 9.

Howard denied having any marijuana plants and "stopped talking" when deputies inquired about a shed on the property, where they later found 150 plants, half of them mature, said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

Troyer said deputies also learned the couple had not reported three earlier break-ins.

"We don't know who is involved" in Howard's homicide, he said. "When victims are not cooperative and are only telling half-truths and you have a history of nonreporting, it's going to make it hard for us."

But Sarich and others in his line or work contend the "history of nonreporting" is because they're as afraid of police as they are of the criminals.

Another medicinal-marijuana patient, Mark Spohn, called Seattle police last May after armed men posing as FBI agents entered his Wallingford house and stole marijuana plants he was growing.

When police arrived, they found Spohn had more than 100 additional plants, which he was growing for himself and 20 other authorized medical-marijuana patients, according to court paperwork.

The Prosecutor's Office announced last month it would not charge Spohn with exceeding the legal limit.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf and staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan contributed to this report.