Petaluma pot farm closed down, but not without one more fight

Under terms of a settlement agreement with the county, Petaluma’s Green Earth Coffee this month agreed to stop all marijuana operations at its Adobe Road site by November 15. Busted in April for operating without a permit, the farm will pay the county $415,000 in costs, taxes and penalties. And the property is under a permanent ban on any future commercial cannabis operations.

But the company is still fighting on one front — a lawsuit filed by neighbors.

Residents living near the grow said the farm creates a pervasive “skunk-like stench” throughout the area. Noise from a generator is also bothersome, they said.

Green Earth thinks its the lawsuit that stinks, and this week filed a motion to have it dismissed.

The suit sought relief federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), an emerging legal strategy in this type of case. But, argued the defense team, RICO does not apply unless the defendants suffer actual financial loss.

“Allegations of personal injuries and annoyances from the smells and sounds coming from the cannabis farm, as well as speculative reduction in their property value from living next to a cannabis business, are decidedly not actionable under RICO because they do not constitute concrete (i.e. ‘out of pocket’ monetary) damage to ‘business or property,’” wrote Kenneth Stratton, chief counsel for Rogoway Law Group in Santa Rosa, who is representing Zambrano and Green Earth Coffee.

The neighbors in August sued Zambrano, Green Earth Coffee, and property owner Flying Rooster, for alleged violations of racketeering and state and local laws.

“Defendants’ operation of the cannabis enterprise through repeated acts of racketeering has directly and proximately injured plaintiffs’ property,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Kevin Block and Roman Block of Block & Block in Napa, wrote in the complaint.

Pot is legal in California, but not under federal law. Thus the RICO strategy.

The open and ongoing commission of federal crimes near plaintiffs’ homes further diminishes their market value by causing potential buyers to fear associated criminal activity or by otherwise making the homes less attractive to potential buyers,” the lawsuit maintained.

Oddly, the fact that the farm is shutting down may be its best legal defense.

The grow’s impending closure, Stratton said, means there can’t be any threat of long-term criminal activity — a required finding under RICO.