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A woman whose felony marijuana charge has not been cleared despite state reform sued California July 13 in a class action suit for allegedly not funding Inland Empire courts with enough money to review 20,000 eligible marijuana convictions for clearance.

Sara Rodriguez, a Los Angeles woman convicted in San Bernardino Superior Court, claims the state unfairly prioritizes coastal and whiter counties.

Rodriguez’s felony marijuana conviction should have been expunged under the 2018 marijuana expungement bill AB 1793, but San Bernardino Superior Court has not been provided the resources to process her application, she argues.

In 2018, San Bernardino County had 10,892 eligible cases to review, while Riverside County had 8,270 eligible cases to review. As of January, 2022, San Bernardino and Riverside superior courts had not processed a single case that should have been dismissed through AB 1793. Santa Clara County finished processing its 11,500 in April 2020, and Los Angeles County finished processing its 66,000 cases in late 2021.

From the lawsuit

Gov. Gavin Newsom spokesperson Danella Debel declined to comment on the litigation when reached by Follow Our Courts. Follow Our Courts also reached out to San Bernardino Superior Court for comment.

“The State’s deliberate policies created a process that is disproportionate and has resulted in inequitable access to conviction clearance for residents of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. These resulting barriers are especially detrimental for those residents, many of whom are low-income and from underrepresented backgrounds, often without the means or knowledge to pursue record clearance on their own,” Rodriguez’s complaint says.

Convictions should be automatically cleared

AB 1793 required courts to automatically clear convictions for owning, transporting, purchasing, obtaining or giving away cannabis.

Then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), who now serves as California’s attorney general, wrote the bill after marijuana was decriminalized in California.

The lawsuit claims that the Judicial Council and the state should have provided Inland Empire’s courts with more money to process marijuana cases for expungement.

San Bernardino County had 10,892 eligible cases to review, while Riverside County had 8,270 eligible cases to review, the complaint claims.

As of January, 2022, San Bernardino and Riverside superior courts had not processed a single case that should have been dismissed through AB 1793, the complaint claims.

Santa Clara County finished processing its 11,500 in April 2020, and Los Angeles County finished processing its 66,000 cases in late 2021, the complaint claims.

Both claims are backed up by a January, 2022, Los Angeles Times article that featured Rodriguez and her felony conviction for owning cannabis almost two decades ago. According to the article, San Bernardino Superior Courts spokesperson Julie Van Hook had said the court should complete their case review by July, 2022, if they had enough resources.

Funding split per case

The Judicial Council had opposed the bill in an Aug. 22, 2018, letter, saying it would cause between $5.2 million and $25 million in statewide court costs to process 220,000 cannabis cases.

The state provided $16 million to process the cases, the complaint claims.

The Judicial Council and the state decided to divide that funding based on each county’s total eligible convictions, without considering whether the court is already financially overwhelmed, the complaint claims.

Each court received $77.20 per eligible conviction, but San Bernardino and Riverside superior courts were already so swamped due to a lack of state resources that their cases have not been processed, the complaint says.

Rodriguez says the lack of adequate funding is a violation of Health and Safety Code Section 1161.9, the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution and the Unruh Civil Rights Act.

The complaint said that IE convictees will continue to be prevented from pursuing their education, receiving credit, gaining housing and finding employment.

The complaint says the Inland Empire’s history as a majority minority area has led to unequal treatment under the law, and that whiter coastal counties are both less policed and better able to process convictions for dismissal.

The complaint asks for an injunction to force greater investment in Inland Empire courts to process marijuana convictions for dismissal.

Case information

Richard McCune, Joseph Richardson and Sandy Gonzalez of Ontario’s McCune Wright Arevalo represent Rodriguez.

Counsel for the state has not yet been announced.

San Bernardino Superior Judge David Cohn is assigned to the case.

Case number CIVSB2213905.

Read the complaint here.

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