Pot grower drew eye of law long ago

King County sheriff's detectives began investigating allegations of drug dealing by medical-marijuana advocate Steve Sarich months before last week's break-in and shootout at his Kirkland-area home.

Two parallel investigations are under way, said Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Office.

One investigation is looking at the March 15 attempted robbery of pot and cash at the house Sarich shares with his girlfriend, Chelsea Fennell. Five suspects, including a 19-year-old who was critically injured when Sarich exchanged gunfire with a 17-year-old suspect armed with a shotgun, already have been arrested and charged in connection with the early morning break-in.

The other investigation, which began in November, is examining whether Sarich, 59, and Fennell, 20, are manufacturing and distributing marijuana illegally, according to two search-warrant affidavits filed in King County District Court in Shoreline.

It is the second time since 2007 that Sarich has been investigated for illegal drug activity.

Sheriff's detectives also are investigating Jason Ling, a California osteopath who has been writing the bulk of medical-marijuana authorizations for people who attend Saturday clinics on Sarich's property, according to Urquhart and the warrants.

Though state law prohibits medical-marijuana dispensaries, Sarich acknowledged he in fact is providing marijuana for medical use out of his basement.

He said he and Fennell, who are both qualified medical-marijuana patients, act as "designated providers" of marijuana for other patients. He said it's all legal because the patients sign an order temporarily designating him as their provider — typically, for 15 or 30 minutes at a time.

That practice goes against the spirit of the state's medical-marijuana law, Urquhart said. He said legislators intended for a spouse or caregiver to be able to legally obtain marijuana for patients who are too ill to get it themselves, not for someone to provide pot for multiple patients.

According to the search warrant, detectives found a stack of 138 "designated provider" forms, with Fennell listed as the provider for most of those individual patients.

"A thorn in their side"

Sarich, who portrays himself as a patient advocate and legal adviser for sick people who want to use pot legally, said his business barely breaks even.

"I'm a thorn in their side," Sarich said of his uneasy relationship with the criminal-justice system. "I'm tired of being messed with, and I'm tired of having to defend patients."

But detectives, in their affidavits, paint a picture of Sarich's business as a lucrative pot-selling enterprise.

According to the warrants, up to 200 people would pay $200 each to attend a Saturday seminar on Sarich's property, meet with a doctor and receive a state authorization to use medical marijuana. They then pay $15 a plant and between $9 and $15 for a gram of processed marijuana.

"Sarich dispenses the marijuana and makes a large cash profit," one affidavit says.

On at least one occasion, a confidential informant working with detectives was able to obtain a medical-marijuana authorization and buy pot from Sarich without providing medical records from his doctor, according to the same warrant.

Court records indicate the operation was so large that Sarich hired parking attendants and used orange cones to mark parking spots for as many as 60 cars at a time on his 3.5-acre rental property, which includes two houses.

A former parking attendant and another former employee of Sarich's are among the five suspects linked to the March 15 break-in, according to charging documents filed last week.

The November investigation began after another medical-marijuana advocate complained of narcotics activity at Sarich's home and told investigators Sarich was flying in a California doctor — Ling — to write prescriptions, the affidavit says.

When detectives searched Sarich's house after the break-in, they found 375 marijuana plants — 259 starter plants, 80 medium-size plants and 36 larger plants — in three grow rooms, the warrant said. They also found a safe with 25 Mason jars containing different strains of marijuana, several labeled with prices per gram.

Also in the safe was $10,712 in cash, apparently deposits from the day's marijuana transactions, the warrant says. Detectives also found what appeared to be sales records that showed Sarich collected $14,653 between March 1 and 5, the bulk of it in cash, according to the warrant.

"From what we can tell so far ... this is going to involve tens of thousands of dollars," Urquhart said.

Three handguns, a scope rifle, a short-handled shotgun, ammunition, a money counter, a credit-card scanner, 150 glass pipes, 120 vaporizers and a vast assortment of baked goods, frozen meals, desserts and chocolates containing "medicinal cannabis" also were found in the home, the affidavit says.

Seven computers were seized and will be examined for evidence related to Sarich's business, Urquhart said.

"This is not a secret"

This isn't the first time Sarich has come under scrutiny.

The warrant says that federal investigators in 2007 seized 1,554 plants from the Everett rental house where Sarich was living at the time. Sarich never was indicted.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said she could not comment on the case since no charges were filed.

Sarich owns two companies: Sentry Medical Group, which pays a doctor to review patients' medical records to confirm that they have a condition that qualifies them for medical marijuana, and CannaCare, which provides preapproved patients with plants for a "donation" of $15 per plant.

Sarich started CannaCare in April 2007, and founded his medical group about a year later. The medical group's official address is Sarich's home in the Kirkland area, and he is listed as the sole manager, according to documents Sarich filed with the Washington Secretary of State's Office.

Dr. Mohammad H. Said, an Ephrata internist, said Sarich paid him $1,500 to evaluate patients when Sarich's clinic was set up in Bellevue. The flat fee, he said, was typical for what he is paid for daily clinics.

"This is not a secret, that patients have a place to go for medicine," Sarich said. "We keep our doors open, but nobody's making a pile of money doing this."

Staff reporters Susan Kelleher and Mark Rahner contributed.

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