SAN DIEGO (CN) - San Diego County took two little children away from their parents for a year, and lied about it, because the father used medical marijuana on the advice of a doctor, the reunited family claims in court.
Michael Lewis, Lauren Taylor and their young children Cameran and Bailey Lewis sued San Diego County and seven of its officers, the City of Coronado and two of its police officers for civil rights violations, battery, false imprisonment and negligence, Superior Court.
Defendants include Coronado police Officers Patrick O'Malley and Robert Cline, and San Diego County Health and Human Services agents Ian Baxter, N. Quinteros, Benita Jemison, Abigail Joseph, Antonia Torres, Brooke Guild and Alfredo Guardado.
Michael Lewis - a Gulf War veteran who was exposed to chemicals during there that cause debilitating migraines - obtained a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor to relieve the pressure of his headaches, he says in the complaint.
Lewis says he kept the marijuana at home, but the children were not exposed to the pot itself or to its smoke.
On Aug. 5, 2011, Coronado police received an anonymous tip that Lewis and Taylor were running a day care and smoking marijuana around the children, according to the lawsuit. Lewis says he allowed officers to enter the home, and they photographed it, and saw that there was no illegal daycare facility there.
"Although the officers found marijuana in the home, Michael Lewis had a medical marijuana recommendation and his use was legal. Michael presented his medical marijuana recommendation to the officers. The officers then left and wrote a report. In their report, the officers identified marijuana as the only purported 'hazard' in the residence. Neither Lewis nor Taylor were ever criminally prosecuted for the possession and/or use of the marijuana," the family states in the complaint.
Defendant officers O'Malley and Cline returned three days later with HHS agents Baxter and Quinteros.
"Defendants Baxter and Quinteros, after consulting their supervisors and O'Malley and Cline and obtaining their advice and agreement, seized 4-year-old C.L. and 2-year-old B.L. from their home and their parents' care. Defendants then deposited the children at the Polinsky Center, an emergency shelter for allegedly abused and neglected children in San Diego County. The children were there for approximately two weeks without their parents and were no doubt terrified," the complaint states.
"The only allegations against Lewis and Taylor were, essentially, that Lewis legally used marijuana, and police found marijuana in the home.
"Based on these facts, defendants seized C.L. and B.L. without a warrant based on allegations of 'general neglect,' where no exigency existed at all. Specifically, there was no reasonable or articulable evidence to suggest that either child was in immediate danger of suffering severe bodily injury or death at the hands of either Lewis or Taylor in the time it would have taken to obtain a protective custody warrant.
"Nonetheless, even though they knew Michael Lewis' use of medical marijuana was completely legal in that he had obtained a medical marijuana recommendation after an evaluation from a licensed medical doctor, and that Lewis only used the marijuana outside the presence of the children and only for amelioration of pain, these defendants seized and detained the children. They failed to conduct any independent investigation prior to seizing the children. Michael and Lauren were shocked, stunned, amazed, and terrified.