Local Marijuana Shop Leaders’ Criminal Records Raise Concerns

The criminal records of the heads of Temecula’s medical marijuana shops raise safety concerns, several officials said.

Douglas Lanphere, the director of legal affairs for Cooperative Patients’ Services, Inc., was found guilty of felony cultivation, transport, sale and possession of controlled substances and sentenced to eight years in state prison in 1999, according to Orange County court records.

He was also charged with misdemeanor disturbing the peace and obstructing justice in 2008. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to pay a fine, according to Riverside County court records.

His co-op dispenses marijuana to medical card-carrying members from a suite in a strip mall on Old Town Front Street.

The cooperative is locked in a legal battle with the City of Temecula, which ordered it to shut down for allegedly violating a citywide ban on dispensaries.

To read about the case, .

Lanphere declined to return a telephone call asking about his criminal record earlier this month.

The head of Temecula’s other marijuana shop is also a felon.

Beau Attride, the head of Closed Circuit Collective, was charged in 2009 with cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale, endangering a child and possessing a firearm despite previous felony convictions, according to Riverside County court records.

He pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and the other charges were dropped in a plea deal, according to records.

He was also convicted or pleaded guilty to felonies in 1995 and again in 1997, the record shows.

He also admitted to violating probation on May 31 and was sentenced to serve a stricter probation and weekends in jail, according to records.

Attride declined to return a call asking about his record.

Safety concerns

A felon running any store with drugs and thousands of dollars in cash is a dangerous thing, said Andre O’Harra, the chief of the Temecula Police Department.

“I do think there’s a legitimate concern there,” he said.

A person’s past acts are a good indication of the person’s future behavior, and that’s not good for people with felony drug records, he said.

“If we’re dealing with folks who don’t really care about going by the rules, it tells you what kind of people you’re dealing with,” he said. “I’d think that would carry over to other decisions they make.”

This is especially dangerous when a potential customer is asked to give personal information to join a medical marijuana group.

O’Harra declined to talk about any shop or individual in specific, but in numerous past investigations, police found weapons on the premises.

Magnets for violence

These shops are prone to robberies, O’Harra said. “They have large quantities of money and marijuana on the premises,” he said. “Other cities had major armed robberies.”

These incidents led to assaults, violence and death, and the same could happen in Temecula, he said.

In fact, an armed assault happened last month at Closed Circuit Collective, according to sheriff’s officials.

A customer got in an argument with somebody working at the shop, and that person hit the customer in the face with a baseball bat, according to police records.

To read more about the attack, .

The sheriff’s department later raided the building to gather evidence on the assault. Investigators confiscated several baseball bats. To read about it, .

This reinforces the reason the city banned dispensaries, said City Councilmember Jeff Comerchero.

“I certainly have concerns about the issue in general,” he said in a recent interview. “Part of that reason is certainly safety.”

He hopes to keep the kind of violence that gravitates to these establishments away from the city, he said.

The need for oversight

Some residents are worried these shops will bring violence to their neighborhoods.

Ron Martinelli, a forensic criminologist based in Temecula, is afraid if bullets start flying at these shops, innocent people will get hurt.

“People have been shot, people have been beaten, people have been killed in these places,” he said.

He worked on numerous investigations involving marijuana dispensaries as part of his job and found the heads are often armed.

No laws are in place to check the backgrounds of the leaders of these organizations, he said. “Who’s coming to inspect these places? Who’s vetting these people? Who’s checking their backgrounds?”

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this article was changed on Oct. 4, 2011, to better reflect the nature of Beau Attrides' record.