Hearing Canceled in Eagle Rock Marijuana Case (Updated)

A court hearing scheduled Wednesday in connection with a lawsuit between the City Attorney’s office and an Eagle Rock medical marijuana dispensary and its landlords has been called off, Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg said.

The hearing in the lawsuit against American Eagle Collective and the owners of the Colorado Boulevard property where the pot shop does business was initially scheduled to be heard by Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr.

The hearing was canceled late Tuesday by Mohr himself because the City Attorney’s office had filed a so-called “affidavit of prejudice”—or a preemptory challenge—against the judge on Monday, hours after the lawsuit was transferred from the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Ruth A. Kwan to that of Judge Mohr.

Both parties in the lawsuit, Greenberg explained, have the right to file one such affidavit each against a single judge during the course of the litigation.

Greenberg said the City filed the affidavit in Mohr’s court because he is dealing with a string of lawsuits by medical marijuana dispensaries against the City. "Judge Mohr is handling cases filed by about 100 dispensaries and we believe that combining those cases with our enforcement cases may delay our enforcement efforts," Greenberg said.

In December 2010 Mohr had deemed as unconstitutional large parts of a medical marijuana ordinance that the Los Angeles City Council had adopted in January 2010.

A judge against whom an affidavit of prejudice is filed is “not really supposed to hear any contentious matters” regarding a particular lawsuit, Greenberg added. “He’s supposed to send the case to another judge.”

It is not yet known in which judge’s court the case of “The People of the State of California vs. American Eagle Collective” will now be sent.

The City Attorney’s office has filed a total of 24 lawsuits against medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, including one against House of Kush, another Eagle Rock medical marijuana facility, Greenberg said.

The City has accused American Eagle Collective of violating zoning laws—and the dispensary’s landlords have been accused of violating health and safety codes by leasing their property to a business that deals in a controlled substance.

Check back for updates on this litigation between the City and American Eagle Collective.