ANDY’S UNITY PARK » Posada
celebrates community and
the life of Andy Lopez. A3
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2018 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM
Partial shutdown takes effect
Lawmakers leave Capitol
without budget deal after
Trump rejects spending bill
By ERICA WERNER, DAMIAN
PALETTA AND JOHN WAGNER
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Large parts of
the federal government shut down
overnight after President Don-
ald Trump torpedoed a bipartisan
spending deal because it lacked the
money he demanded for a wall along
SANTA ROSA » Couple constructs new retreat in Mark West,
replacing house built 43 years ago that was destroyed by Tubbs fire
Home sweet log home
Gary and Lynda Bayless’ log home takes shape Wednesday on their property in the Mark West area. Their previous home burned in the Tubbs fire.
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
T
he cedar logs of Gary and
Lynda Bayless’ longtime home
in the Mark West area north of
Santa Rosa burned ravenously in the
October 2017 Tubbs fire, melting gold
and platinum jewelry pieces, reduc-
ing diamonds to powder and concrete
foundation into crumbles.
As a jeweler working with precious
metals for more than four decades,
Bayless estimates the house and a
lifetime of keepsakes were incin-
erated in temperatures of at least
2,000 degrees.
The firestorm left little behind
but the 9-inch spikes Bayless had
hand-driven into the logs 43 years ago
when the Vietnam War veteran built
MOISES CASTILLO / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Migrants embrace Friday after receiving one of the
50 turns for an interview to request U.S. asylum at a
pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico.
Advice B7 Comics B6 Lotto
Business B8 Crossword B7 Movies
Legals C5 Editorial A8 Nation-World B1
EMPIRE BASKETBALL » Piner
boys fall to Montgomery in
first night of league play. C1
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Funding for numerous agencies,
including those that operate parks,
homeland security, law enforce-
ment, tax collection and transpor-
tation, expired at midnight. Close to
400,000 federal workers are expected
to be sent home without pay until a
deal is reached, and numerous ser-
vices will be halted in that time, with
the impacts broadening the longer
the funding lapse lasts.
The shutdown intensifies a stand-
off between Trump, who is demand-
ing $5.7 billion for a border wall, and
the home on a wooded slope where
the couple raised four sons.
A 120-foot redwood tree, planted to
commemorate a fifth son who died
at birth, had to be cut down, among
more than 100 trees felled on their
1-acre lot after the blaze that roared
down the Mark West corridor in the
early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2017.
One neighbor perished in the blaze;
others were severely burned. The Bay-
lesses fled first to the Hilton Sonoma
Wine Country hotel, which ignited
a half hour after they arrived. They
spent a wide-awake nightmare from
a safe distance at a friend’s house in
Sebastopol, watching the wind-driven
fire advance on Santa Rosa.
“You could see the trees exploding.
TURN TO LOG HOME » PAGE A2
Justices refuse to intervene on asylum
Lower court ruling remains
in place, blocking Trump
administration’s new rules
By ADAM LIPTAK
NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
Court refused Friday to allow the
Trump administration to immediately
enforce its new policy of denying asy-
lum to migrants who illegally cross
the Mexican border.
A2 Obituaries B3 WEIGHING SAFETY ISSUES: California Public
D2 Sports C1 Utilities Commission considers breaking up
State news B3 PG&E, among other drastic measures / B3
STARTING ANEW » Couple
renovate Montecito Heights
home to suit their style. D1
WINNER OF THE 2018 PULITZER PRIZE
congressional Democrats, who have
vowed to block any wall funding and
midterm elections, showed no signs
of buckling to his demands amid a
INSIDE
have the votes to do so. It marks a flurry of attacks this week.
■ Which federal
agencies are
deflating final chapter for Republi-
cans as they complete two years of
The White House and congres-
sional leaders continued negotia-
affected by the
shutdown? / A6
unified GOP control in Washington tions late Friday, but by 8:30 p.m.,
— as well as an acrimonious prelude the House and the Senate had ad- ■ Roller-coaster
week exacerbates
to the upcoming era of divided gov- journed for the night. That made it
ernment, after Democrats take the impossible to vote on any spending Republican fears
House in January. agreement until Saturday, and it about Trump
Trump saw the final days of this remained unclear whether any deal and 2020 / B1
year as his last chance to try to ex- would materialize by then. ■ Reliant on,
tract funding for the wall, while It is unclear how long a shutdown but mistrustful
Democrats, united against the wall of, government
and buttressed by big wins in the TURN TO SHUTDOWN » PAGE A6 programs / B1
Hue Freeman
ROHNERT PARK
Second
lawsuit
on pot
seizure
Dispensary owner says
police violated his civil
rights in traffic stop
By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A second Highway 101 driver
has filed a federal civil rights
lawsuit against the Rohnert
Park Public Safety Department
alleging its officers violated his
rights when they pulled him
over in 2016 near the Mendoci-
no County line and took a haul
of marijuana worth more than
PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT $65,000 he was delivering to a
dispensary.
Hue Freeman, 61, a longtime
Mendocino County dispensa-
ry owner and cannabis farmer,
said he believes the department
rewarded its officers for travel-
ing far outside city limits to seize
marijuana on the highway and
disregarded state laws allowing
medical marijuana growers to
conduct business.
In his 11-page complaint filed
Thursday in U.S. District Court
in San Francisco, Freeman ac-
cused Rohnert Park Sgt. Bren-
don Jacy Tatum, who resigned
in June, and Officer Joseph
Huffaker of pulling him over
without legal justification. The
suit also alleges the officers dis-
regarded paperwork and state-
ments from an attorney and
dispensary manager proving he
The view from the Baylesses’ log home as they rebuild.
TURN TO LAWSUIT » PAGE A7
The Supreme Court’s two-sentence 2005, is now plainly at the court’s ideo-
order rejecting a request for a stay logical center, a spot that had long be-
of a lower court’s ruling revealed longed to Justice Anthony Kennedy,
a new dynamic at the
court, one in which Chief INSIDE
who retired in July and was
replaced in October by Justice
Justice John Roberts played Justice Ruth Brett Kavanaugh.
the key role, joining the Bader Ginsburg The court’s ruling thwart-
court’s four-member liberal has surgery for ed, at least for now, any
wing in turning down the lung cancer / B1 attempt to carry out the
administration’s request for a proclamation by President
stay of a trial judge’s ruling blocking Donald Trump last month that only
the policy. migrants who arrived in the United
The chief justice, appointed to the
court by President George W. Bush in TURN TO ASYLUM » PAGE A2
SANTA ROSA ©2018
High 58, Low 40 The Press
Democrat
THE WEATHER, C8
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2018 A7

LAWSUIT an Masterson announced he

would retire in July at a time
when the city was months
Hue Free-
man prunes
district attorney officials,
who reviewed the case doc-
uments earlier this year in
many detentions and sei-
zures of cash and marijua-
na as possible without any
CONTINUED FROM A1 into its investigation into plants on response to a Press Demo- regard for the constitution-
Tatum and Huffaker. his canna- crat query. al rights of individuals.”
was abiding by state medi- The city also hired an bis farm It would take another Freeman also claims in
cal marijuana laws. outside auditor to review its above the four weeks before Rohnert the complaint that the of-
Freeman said he filed the drug-seizure program, evi- Alexander Park police filed a report ficers stopped him “based
lawsuit because he believes dence booking procedures Valley in about the traffic stop and on information they had
his case represents a wide- and other department prac- June. citation, with prosecutors received from an unnamed
spread practice by tices. The review requesting charges. source, and that the infor-
Rohnert Park of- is still underway JOHN BURGESS The Sonoma County Dis- mation was deliberately
ficers of wrongly and already has THE PRESS
DEMOCRAT
trict Attorney’s Office de- withheld from the Incident
taking marijuana led to changes in clined to charge Freeman Report,” which was writ-
or cash in highway evidence booking and the Sherman Oaks ignated provider” expected with a crime “in the inter- ten by Huffaker and ap-
stops far outside procedures. dispensary, Higher Path, to deliver the marijuana to est of justice” after deter- proved by Sutter.
city limits. Assistant City where it was destined for the dispensary. mining he appeared to be Freeman filed a claim
A Press Demo- Manager Don delivery, according to the The complaint alleges following medical marijua- with the city in June 2017,
crat investigation Schwartz said the filing. Huffaker demanded the officers “acted inten- na rules, a district attorney requesting Rohnert Park
found that the city Brendon Jacy city would review Freeman show documents tionally and with reckless official said. compensate him for the fi-
took an aggres- Tatum Freeman’s com- “allowing marijuana disregard for the truth” and In his civil rights com- nancial loss, which the city
sive stance toward plaint, although transportation,” a type of seized the marijuana, giv- plaint, Freeman said he promptly rejected. Freeman
seizing cash and valuables he added that the city gen- document that didn’t exist ing Freeman a citation for believes the department said the marijuana was
from people suspected erally does not comment and wasn’t required under unlawful possession. They conducted an internal worth more than $65,000.
of committing crimes on ongoing litigation. state laws at the time, ac- provided no documentation investigation into his “Why is a Rohnert Park
through a procedure called Records show Rohnert cording to the complaint. confirming the amount of 2016 traffic stop but that cop near the Mendocino
asset forfeiture. These Park kept about $1.2 mil- During the roadside stop, cannabis taken from Free- none of the officers were border, stopping somebody
missions brought in about lion of cash seized in Freeman put police on the man’s vehicle, he said. counseled or disciplined as for a traffic infraction on
$2.4 million since 2014, highway stops and other phone with both a Higher Five days later, a Sono- a result. the other side of the free-
far outpacing larger law law enforcement cases be- Path manager and his law- ma County judge signed The lawsuit said Master- way, a car heading in the
enforcement agencies in tween 2016 and 2017. The yer, Hannah Nelson, who a destruction order for son and the city “created opposite direction?” Gal-
Sonoma County. Rohnert program has bolstered the both confirmed he was a the cannabis requested by an environment that incen- lenson said. “To me, that’s
Park keeps a portion of city’s budget and drawn lawful cultivator and a “des- Rohnert Park, according to tivized officers to make as ridiculous.”
the money, and the rest is sharp criticism from local
distributed to the District defense attorneys and can-
Attorney’s Office and other nabis industry players who
state agencies. question the lawfulness of
“The city of the Rohnert the missions.
Park was using us as a cash Freeman’s attorney, Steve
register, exhibited by the Gallenson, said his client’s
fact they were driving 30 to case is a clear example of
40 miles north in order to condoned overreach. He
conduct their business,” said Rohnert Park reward-
Freeman said. “It was ed its officers for getting “as
LIMITED TIME ONLY!
clear to me they weren’t many forfeitures as they
handling our confiscations could without regard to cit-
properly.” izens’ constitutional rights.”
Freeman’s lawsuit fol- “It was lawful for him ORDER IN 7 COLORS!
lows another federal civ- to grow marijuana. It was
il rights claim filed last lawful for him to distribute
month by a Texas man who it to a dispensary, and he
also said Rohnert Park had all the paperwork to
and its officers violated his show that,” Gallenson said.
rights during and after a “But Tatum and Huffaker
2017 traffic stop near the didn’t care.”
Mendocino-Sonoma coun- Freeman’s lawsuit seeks
ty line when unidentified unspecified damages. It L A U R E L Sofa
officers seized 3 pounds of names as defendants the
marijuana. city, Masterson, Huffaker,
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quired the cannabis lawful- Freeman was driving
ly with a medical marijua- south about 1:40 p.m. on
na recommendation from a Dec. 29, 2016 in Cloverdale
Humboldt County farmer. with the cannabis “appro-
He said the officers took priately packaged, sealed ORDER
his marijuana and abrupt- and stored in the trunk,” IN 13
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ly left without giving him a the court filings say. Tatum COLORS
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remains an employee, but officers immediately began
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