New U.S. Attorney in San Francisco Under Open Attack from Federal Court

By Scott Horton

In San Francisco, an announcement by the U.S. attorney that he would retry medical marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal provoked an angry response from the judge, who demanded to know precisely who at the Department of Justice in Washington had been involved in the decision. The U.S. attorney, Scott Schools, is one of eight new appointees at the center of the current storm of controversy concerning the purging of U.S. attorneys to make way for politically pliant replacements. The Associated Press reports:

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer demanded to know who in the Department of Justice made the decision to continue pursuing Rosenthal, who had his original conviction overturned last year.

Rosenthal can't be sentenced to prison even if he is convicted because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the one-day prison sentence ordered by Breyer in 2003.

Newly appointed U.S. Attorney Scott Schools made the decision, said Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan, but he was not sure if Department of Justice officials in Washington were involved.

The judge previously concluded that the U.S. attorney's decision to retry Rosenthal demonstrated inappropriate retaliatory intent, fed by pique over the U.S. attorney's loss before the Ninth Circuit. Defense counsel is seeking to have costs borne by the United States on the grounds that the prosecution was vindictive and inappropriate.