There’s no love lost between the Arcata marijuana grow house scene and Kevin Hoover, editor/publisher of the Arcata Eye.
As neighborhood backlash against grows increases, as police takedowns become ever more common, and as national media take unwelcome notice of the quirky little town with 1,000 indoor pot farms, growers have pinned their frustrations on Hoover, who reports on the industry just about every week in his newspaper. He’s been attacked in his own pages and on the Web. His motives have been impugned in flyers that were hung around town. Weed-related businesses have pulled their ads.
Now, though, one defendant in a criminal grow house bust has taken matters a step further — by attempting to rope Hoover into his case. Daniel Carbonneau, who was arrested on June 25 after a raid at an Old Arcata Road home uncovered 275 pot plants and four pounds of marijuana, has subpoenaed a long list of internal Arcata Eye documents and correspondence, apparently in an effort to prove that Hoover had been working with the police.
“This is a common tactic — to make the reporter part of the story so they can’t report on it,” Hoover said outside a Humboldt County courtroom Tuesday. A hearing on the matter had been scheduled for that morning, but was postponed to January 12.
Since Hoover intends to battle the subpoena, the case could turn out to be a test of California’s shield law, which generally protects reporters from being compelled by a court to turn over unpublished information relating to their work. Shield laws in California and other states are founded on the idea that reporters must be able to operate independently of law enforcement, and must be able to protect confidential sources and other privileged material if the press is to function.
But Carbonneau attorney Steve Schectman, who has worked extensively in California medical marijuana law, alleged Tuesday that Hoover already does work with the law enforcement in documenting and taking out grow houses. Schectman said that he had plenty of “anecdotal” evidence to suggest that Hoover operated as a police informant in his client’s case, and therefore is not entitled to immunity under the shield law.
“You can’t wear two hats and get the protection of one,” said Schectman. He said that if he can prove that Hoover illegally obtained evidence against his client, and if that evidence later made it into the search warrant served at the Old Arcata Road home, then the case against his client would have to be dropped. “If you can prove that, the search warrant would be quashed,” he said.
Hoover vehemently denied serving as a police informant in this or any other case. “I don’t work with the cops, for the record,” he said. “I’m out in the world gathering information for my readers. I never published anything about that house before the cops took it out. I never talked to the cops about it.”
For over a year, Arcata’s bustling indoor marijuana scene — which has been the cause of major house fires, dozens of arrests, inflated rental prices and untold millions in revenue — has been a major topic in the Eye, a weekly newspaper with a circulation of around 3,000. When national papers or TV networks come to town to file dispatches on what Hoover calls “the pot cartels,” they nearly always include interviews with him.
A little over a year ago, Hoover started approaching the subject in a systematic way, taking complaints about neighborhood grow houses from readers and compiling a list. He wrote letters to owners of the houses, asking them if the property had, in fact, been turned over to marijuana production. Hoover saw it as a reporter doing his job; some growers took it as “snitching” or some other kind of unwarranted intrusion into their affairs.
All the attention and the publicity, naturally, have been unwelcome. Hoover believes that the real reason that he was subpoenaed is to squelch his reporting on the story by smearing his character — in other words, that the marijuana industry, in this case, is functioning just as any other major industry with secrets to keep would function.
“It’s just chicanery,” he said. “They’re trying to shut down the only person around on this story.”
Attorney Paul Hagen — a former prosecutor now with the Eureka firm of Bragg, Perlman, Russ, Stunich & Eads and a man often cited as a likely challenger to District Attorney Paul Gallegos next year — has agreed to represent Hoover on a pro bono basis.
In all, Carbonneau has subpoenaed 53 different categories of documentation from the Eye, including personal notes, photographs and correspondence with the defendant, local police agencies, community groups and the Arts & Entertainment network, producers of the recent documentary Pot City U.S.A.
This article appears in Holiday Gift Guide 2009.
Kevin Hoover has betrayed his journalistic principles for too long by willingly taking on the role of local detective on behalf of the APD and DEA. His reporting has become nothing more than a personal obsession to become the champion of a cause and national hero to opponents of marijuana. He has been repeatedly spotted trespassing on private property in search of the same old story, looking for the "bad guys." He paints all growers with the same brush, maligning them in his press as greedy, careless, and shameless. Some of the lives he has actively destroyed have been kind, caring, individuals who are not driving SUVs, boats, and jet skis, but simply making a living. Mr. Hoover, if you so dis-like your own neighborhood and the people in your community, please leave.
I did leave Humboldt, because I no longer felt like continuing the fight against all the potheads. The denigration against Hoover is just another example of how the pot culture in Humboldt is able to turn anyone’s life upside down. More power to the Eye if it can continue to fight against the transformation of Humboldt into a backwoods sewer of California. As for the Eye "painting" all growers as "greedy, careless, and shameless"… well, that sounds like accurate reporting to me. As for folks "Simply making a living"… at whose expense?
The funny part about the "opponents of marijuana" line is none of the growers would want it to be legal. That would put them out of business in about 30 seconds – or at least – make it way less profitable. So the ‘fighting the good fight’ tact is intellectually dishonest from the get-go. This whole thing is just another bit of blowback from prohibition – which has been historically proven to enrich organized crime – and make criminals out of ordinary people. That said – Kevin has the right – and the duty – to report this story. I expect nothing less than his usual fair and accurate reporting.
If John or anyone else would like to call me for actual-factual information rather than making conclusions on assumptions and folklore, I’m at (707) 826-7000.
John Wood:
You’ve attempted to slime Kevin Hoover and invited the editor of The Arcata Eye to "please leave" Arcata. It was polite of you to say "please." Al Capone wouldn’t have bothered.
DId you learn your manners from the "kind, caring individuals" who have been persecuted for growing pot?
The arrogance and venality of the pot industry in Humboldt knows no bounds. Their "I got mine, fuck you" attitude is anything but progressive. Legalize it, regulate it, tax the shit out of it, and put the groovy greedheads out of business. Ruthlessly pursue scammers for felony tax evasion.
Gordon:
The pot culture has been inviting others to "please leave" Humboldt for years. That’s what the war on natural resource based industries and mainstream economic development is really about. Look at who’s waging those campaigns and you’re never far from Pot Inc. Pot money also finds its way into electoral politics. I’m sure Democracy Unlimited doesn’t think that’s a problem.
Hey wait,
The pot culture is quite diverse. Many growers are greedy and shameless criminals, but many are just ordinary people doing what they can to support their families and/or providing the medicine they need(at nobodies ‘expense’). I see this in my community, but I don’t see this in Hoovers reporting. I see him demonizing the whole lot and victimizing people that are not criminal. Good and bad people grow and smoke pot. Alot of good people have been treated like criminals and many of them settled here in Humboldt to get away from it and find acceptance. Others are here for a green gold rush.
The grow house problems are not going to stop by attacking grow houses or people that grow. You will have to reach deeper to the source of the problem…. end prohibition And actually a grower just told me this morning that ”they just need to end prohibition, I’d be out of work, but it would be the right thing to do.” End prohibition and the problems will be gone. The criminals will leave, and the rest of us pot smokers will still be here, we are here to stay.
Hoover: Actual Factual: Once all of the police left the raid I witnessed you helping yourself to Dans property. THAT IS NOT OK!! I AM APPALLED that you must think some laws are OK to break. In my neighborhood I do not feel threatened or unsafe by my neighbors grow. But if I found him in my garage checking to see if my trash bags were really trash I would feel really victimized. And I know it wasn’t the first or last time you stooped like that. You are crossing the line, that is going to far. I know Dan and he does not fit your profile of a ‘grower’ at all. Won’t someone report that those ‘4 pounds’ were actually refuse without a single bud anywhere in the house.. actual factual: not worth much at all
Actual Factual= Kevin is not available at that phone number he is out of the office.
Actual Factual= what a load of sensationalized crap Pot inc. is.
Actual Factual= You roped yourself into the case above, nobody roped you in.
Hmm, Not a Grower is afraid to leave his name. Wonder why that may be. Makes me doubt the credibility of his "actual factual"s.
Well… that’s not so factual. I’m here right now.
Hey, we’re a newspaper. When dope factories sprout up next to residences, industrializing neighborhoods, that’s news. When a dozen cops in body armor show up and drag the guy out, people tend to expect an explanation in the next paper.
Somehow it’s all my fault that these people set up felony grows, often with guns and other drugs on site. Since you have an explanation for Mr. C’s four pounds, perhaps you can supply one for the 275 plants and illegal wiring the police say they found.
When you talk about demonization and victimizing people who are not criminals, this activates my curiosity gland. I wonder what specific citations you have to support that. Our cannabis coverage is online at http://www.arcataeye.com; consider providing links to the demonic parts.
I do agree that the prohibition is the problem,both putting profit into the neighborhood-wrecking grows and criminalizing a whole class of entrepreneurs (plus people who just like to smoke).
Speaking of demonic, here’s one to grow on (so to speak):
http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=2&pid=1012
And, but, also:
http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=2&pid=1006:
I guess painting an entire group with the same brush is alright for some people, but it’s always more nuanced than that. Unless of course you live in the world of Fox news, where bigotry is the norm. I am a local business owner, not a grower, and the many people I know who do grow are simply my community. I don’t judge them as easily as some of you do.
That said, full legalization is the only answer. I am no fan of greed growers and as a tax paying citizen living well within my means, I (like most people) resent those who are taking advantage of the system as it still stands. If Hoover would simply host a debate to help with the progress of legalization, we may get there faster. Pot prices would (should)fall and those greedy bastards can go back to selling meth in Eureka, problem solved.
Yes Mr. Hoover, you’re entrenched and have many supporters and of course everyone who calls out YOUR crimes is aligned with those pot head criminals you keep warning us about. You’re just as sensationalist as Fox news is on the topic and you’re anything but a fair arbiter. Now you are actually a part of a case and you can explain to the court what a hero you are in the community you chastise in print. You’re one of many reasons why print media is losing it’s appeal, I’m looking forward to the day your Eye closes.
John, John, John. Honestly, I believe you’re basing your conclusions on the blog noise that bears little to no relationship to ground truth.
Would you mind giving specifics on the crimes that I’ve committed? Law enforcement would probably be interested.
"You’re one of many reasons why print media is losing it’s appeal, I’m looking forward to the day your Eye closes."
This one is too rife with wonderment not to merit a snappy response.
First, me too. When the Eye closes, which may be sooner than you think, I’ll be able to get a job that pays a living wage, maybe even with health insurance.
Second, that sort of statement pretty much exemplifies the solipsistic temperament of the grow housers.
In its 13 years on Earth, the Eye has covered, and continues to cover, everything from politics to schools to environmental abuse and improvement, farms, food, scandal, business, crime, people, housing, art, music and just about everything else that crops up in a bustling, creative community like Arcata.
But because we, almost alone among Humboldt newspapers, DARE to cover this unregulated, multimillion-dollar illegal drug industry, why, we should be put out of business.
Because to the growers, it’s all about them them them.
Further, sir, your apostrophe abuse is intolerable.
Trespassing Hoover? You are denying it?
Oh, I never trespass on posted property. I do knock on doors, just like reporters and girl scouts everywhere.
What I’ve noticed, o anonymous one, is that people with skin in the cannabis game are outraged – outraged, I tell you! – at possible misdemeanor violations like trespassing while freely racking up felonies, disregarding any laws (not to mention neighbors, property values and community standards) that might encumber their big green money machine.
Look, "John Wood, business owner," drop the phony outrage. It’s bad for business.
Death to apostrophes!
Seriously, this has been fun but… I’m happy to see how you deal with these charges in court. We’ll see how the law handles this, not that they get much right either. If you’ve got nothing to hide but you don’t want to hand over the subpoenaed "documents and correspondence", then why not publish them all online?
As for your paper, I’ve specified repeatedly that this the only topic I’m speaking on. If you do someone some good, then good for you. I’ve seen the harm you can do, and once again we’ll see how this case goes. And my point has been consistently ignored, the issue is not black and white and whole groups of people should not be made criminals in the press.
I don’t care if your paper goes down because print media is increasingly not worth the paper it’s printed on, literally. This online forum has transcended what any paper can do for the democratization of media.
And now for my opinion I’ve been compared to Al Capone, is Hitler too cliche? As an Arcatan who isn’t afraid to use his real name, I don’t mix my personal politics with my business. Anonymous pride, that’s a good one. Seriously, I’m done with the tit for tat, you guys just trash me amongst yourselves. I’ll wait for the results of the trial before I start the riots, burn down the apostrophes!
In other words, "John Wood business owner" hasn’t got a single fact to back up his threats. Just hot air.
Imagine trying to cover so much as a PTA power struggle with only on-the-record sources.
Then consider covering the big-time cannabis industry, with anyone you talk to knowing their identity and information will be posted online. Good luck with that.
"the issue is not black and white and whole groups of people should not be made criminals in the press."
When I read things like that, I get the impression that you haven’t really read the Eye, but are just piling up blog memes and running with them. When have we said this issue is black and white, or made criminals out of groups of people? Citations, man, citations!
Would big polluting corporations ever get busted if not for the people on the inside who speak to the press on condition of having their identity shielded?
Once you break the glass on that tenent, you may as well just publish press releases from Walt Disney, because nobody will freely discuss anything for fear of pissing off their employer or some other entity with perceived power to frighten them into silence.
Keep up the good work, Kevin.
John Wood, local business owner.
Please state the name and location of your business so that I can from here on avoid it like the plague. That’s called freedom of choice.
John Woods, would your local business happen to be a "garden supply" shpp?
The points "John" makes have validity. they don’t really apply to me and the Eye, though.
He and others, as I have said, base their conclusions on anonymous blog crap, that builds over time until somehow I’m responsible for the misfortunes of people who willingly commit felonies.
Principally, he’s confusing correlation with causation. Every neighborhood knows which are the grow houses, the meth houses, the party houses, the trash houses etc. The grow house neighbors talk amongst themselves, they tell police, sometimes they tell me. I assume the cops investigate by their means, and when I have time or energy I do too. I knock on doors, send property owners letters, etc., trying to elucidate facts. Nothing about these houses is published until and if the cops take out a grow there or someone is convicted, because then it’s public record.
Then a bust goes down. And because I left a business card on the door weeks or months previous, why it has to be my fault. Therein lies the logical fallacy.
There are two things I could do that would undermine my profession and my own endeavors. One would be to pipeline information given me in the course of my newspaper work to police. Because then I would not be an independent agent working on behalf of readers. This is exactly what the cannabis folks are trying to put on me now, after having tried almost everything else from physical intimidation to ad boycotts, etc. But it won’t stick because there’s nothing there.
The second big mistake I could make would be to give up confidential sources/conversations/information to whatever lawyer might demand it, because then, no one would ever again believe that I could keep a confidence, and my info-gathering ability would be hobbled. The next time I tried to investigate, say, Simpson Timber dumping pentachlorophenol on the Bottoms, or John Sterns swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from HSU, or David Wallace destroying a heron rookery in Blue Lake so he could log it, or yes, a neighborhood-wrecking grow house, who would talk to me? No one, because they’d know that the subjects of my inquiries would subpoena me based on the precedent.
By the way, what’s kind of funny is that there are people in the cannabis trade whom I’ve talked to who know very well that their info is safe with me. Sometimes I wonder what they think when they read these blogs.
I’ve had issues with Mr. Hoover’s professionalism and ethics in the past, but he’s clearly being smeared by vested interests and a sleazebag lawyer in this case. Still, I can’t help but wonder if the current situation reflects some score settling related to his checkered past as a journalist.
"checkered past?" Got any facts, or is this another clumsy attempt at a smear?
Proud Arcatan:
No smear, an opinion based on my observations of some of Mr. Hoover’s past practices.
My opinion of Hoover’s journalism was lowered because of his propensity for mixing opinions and innuendos with reporting, often in a snide fashion. There were clearly double standards. There was an in group composed of a local political machine and its associates, a clique of the Arcata business community, and some of their pet nonprofits, for which the Eye served as a cheering section. Those who ran afoul of them were subject to smears and innuendos.
There were a couple of instances where people out of favor with Mr. Hoover were subjects of Eye stories, and Mr. Hoover chose to include personal details that were irrelevant to the thrust of the story. There was no purpose to including such details other than to humiliate and smear the subjects. That can only be characterized as journalistic bullying and intimidation, no matter how cute and witty the writing. Serious anger and disgust at Mr. Hoovers tactics were not hard to find in Arcata.
Almost forgot – Daniel Mintz, later of the Humboldt Independent, left the Eye over its handling of an offer by one of the Eye’s favored political pressure groups for payola journalism. The payola offer was for the Eye to do a hit piece on the late Supervisor Roger Rodoni, who was in a high profile disagreement with would-be political boss Richard Salzman and his minions. As I understand it, the Eye did not accept the payola, but they also covered up the incident.
Thirdeye, yours is an undisciplined intellect.
Payola! Welcome to the 50’s!
Kevin Hoover comes off in his comments here as the arrogant jerk he is in real life. What a shocker. Your typical know-it-all know-nothing.
Guy,
And you come off as a compassionate and fair-minded individual.
Prohibition makes the industry. That’s what we got, not some pipe dreams.
Kevin Hoover ain’t stopping no grow houses. Nip It In The Bud petitions ain’t gonna stop grow houses. No land use codes, neighborhood watches, or even 5-0 do squat about grow houses. They bust one, two more houses get blown up. As long as an elbow of bud can put elbows on the Cadillac, we’ll be seeing some more grow houses. When them birds can fly for the same price as organic hops, that’ll be the end of grow houses.
What I think we’re trying to say is… until that day comes, stop snitchin. Stop bringing unwanted heat. What are we supposed to say, good job bringing in major media? Thanks for Pot City?
Nope, fuck that.
Mr. Nice: OK, now it’s Scotia in 1990. You’re a mill worker. "Major media" want to come to town to do a story.
Same deal? "Stop snitchin’"?
"good job bringing in major media"
More blog mythology. These people call me, not the other way around.
I’m in the communications biz. When A&E, or NPR, or KHUM or NORML calls, I tell talk to them. So?
Yea boss, same deal, "stop snitchin." At least if I lived there. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the press refuse to cover that story for years after the summer 1990 demonstrations got squashed?
Not saying bringing bad press by calling the press. Pimping out the grow house story brought the press. The Eye was high on google news for some of those marijuana stories. That is tight and everything, but you gotta understand that plenty of folks are not going to appreciate that kinna attention. Folks having nothing to do with the blogs, growing, or even smoking are going to consider that publicity the same as the Eye being an informant.
It may some type of coincidence, but after the Eye grow house stories got picked up by major press, hella jackers started flowing in from Sacto, Oakland, Antioch, Los Angeles… People got shot which was mostly jackers but that one UPS driver dude was killed like that. I’m not trying to make the two things equivalent, but people I’ve chatted about it do associate the two things.
This is only going to get more divisive. If you checked out craigslist for the last year, you’ll know they are being way more crazy than on blogs.
Yea boss, same deal, "stop snitchin."
Well, you’re not a hypocrite! Just a kind of a lunk.
"Folks having nothing to do with the blogs, growing, or even smoking are going to consider that publicity the same as the Eye being an informant."
I don’t think so. The only people whining about it are pot people.
"It may some type of coincidence, but after the Eye grow house stories got picked up by major press, hella jackers started flowing in from Sacto, Oakland, Antioch, Los Angeles…"
You really think the grow house scene was unknown before the Eye started covering the story? You are sadly mistaken. Pot robberies in Humboldt go far back before the Eye started covering grow houses. AFAIK, the perps are people in the know from their associations with distribution networks. You really think somebody’s going to figure out enough to do a pot robbery from reading a newspaper article?
"Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the press refuse to cover that story for years after the summer 1990 demonstrations got squashed?"
You stand corrected.
Your whining is nothing more than, well, whining. You need a better source of information than your pot connections, fool.
"You stand corrected."
Thirdeye, I was saying how those protests were labeled as ecoterrorism and the whole story slipped off the media radar for a minute.
"Your whining is nothing more than, well, whining."
Both sides accuse each other of whining on this. I’m jus’ sayin’ and that’s all there is to it, no emotion attached. You aren’t going to sway any opinion with just basic smack talk.
On the contrary — that’s the ONLY way to sway opionion on the Internets, it would seem.
I smoke weed. You dont?
I used to smoke weed but after seeing all the violence and greed associated with the "industry," I gave it up for good.
FYI: its significantly more carcinogenic than cigarettes.
One more thing that’s painfully obvious here: pot makes people stupid. Smokers can’t follow logical arguments or make sense in a discussion. And God help us all when they get behind the wheel of a car.
That’s why I got me a bluetooth vaporizer.
too bad mr hoover has ruined so many peoples lives what shame
Care to elaborate, Billy? Maybe you’re just blowing off steam.
You know what’s a real shame? I brought in an article from the Chrstian Science Monitor about 5 or 6 years ago that described the Mexican plantations overseen by drug lords that were increasingly springing up in Humboldt, Mendocino, etc. and the devastating environmental effects they were having. When asked, neither a female employee or Mr. Hoover said they had heard of this. These drug lords and their minions have militarized the ‘industry’, caused major forest fires (500,000 acres in Santa Barbara, for e.g.) and drawn unwelcome federal attention to Humboldt. Is everyone in Arcata so oppressed by the P.C. tyranny that they’re afraid to talk about how bad, how very, very bad these Mexican growers and their bosses are for the earth, the inhabitants and the suckers who buy the chemically-saturated product they sell?! For those of you who have collaborated with them in any way — go F yourselves!