You have to wonder if folks in the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office are happy with this one. Tuesday afternoon in Judge Brian Hill’s courtroom, former medical cannabis club owner Joshua Braun — a man who was once described by members of area law enforcement as a “sort of Svengali of Southern California’s medical marijuana scene” and who, along with his wife, Dayli, had a $1 million bail imposed when he was first arrested for marijuana and money laundering-related crimes in the early summer of 2010 — was sentenced to no more than 180 days in County Jail following a plea deal he and several codefendants brokered in August.
The ruling, once you factor in time served, our overcrowded jail, and California’s “half-time” waiver for nonviolent criminals, will likely result in Braun being put on some sort of house arrest or in a work release program before facing five years of felony probation. “This is not a guy who robbed a bank or just molested a child. He is not a risk to public safety,” explained Hill in handing down the sentence, before adding to Braun directly a few moments later, “I have no doubt you will be a success in the future.”
Hill’s decision was certainly not what the prosecuting attorney, Deputy DA Von Nguyen, was hoping for. Taking exception with the judge’s decision to hand down a sentence that, though echoing the Probation Department’s recommendation, was a far cry from her preferred position of 240 days in jail and immediate remanding into custody for Braun, Nguyen argued unsuccessfully for Hill to think about the impacts of criminal behavior beyond just threats to public safety. Saying that Braun knew all along that he could likely run into trouble with the law for the way he did business at Hortipharm, his medical marijuana storefront on upper State Street, Nguyen explained her frustration, “There were risks involved and he knew it … For him to just get a slap on the wrist sends the wrong message to the community.”