WHO IS BEN RICE?

Noteworthy Cases

$390,000 Award for Deputy's Excessive Force In 1994, I represented George Nichols in a lawsuit against Santa Cruz County alleging unlawful arrest and excessive force. Mr. Nichols recovered $390,000 in this highly publicized case. His wife had been videotaping their children when a deputy began an illegal arrest and assault. Mrs. Nichols videotaped her husband's beating and arrest. That famous video led to our appearances on many national TV news programs including the Geraldo show in New York City. The deputy remained on the force despite the Federal Judge's ruling that he'd violated Mr. Michol's constitutional rights and the nearly $500,000 the county needed to pay in attorney fees and settlement to Mr. Nichols and his family. View the June 2, 1994 Newspaper article in Adobe Acrobat Read about the complaint process concerning abusive police.

Ben Rice, Mrs. Nichols, and Geraldo.

View the video of the illegal arrest and beating video.

The So Called "Road Rage Murder" Case

In 1997, I was retained by David T. to represent him in what became Santa Cruz's infamous "road rage murder case." David was chased by a drunk and enraged driver over Highway 17 from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz. After pulling off and on the freeway and reversing directions, David finally pulled over at 41st Ave, put on his emergency flashers, and hoped the driver would pass on. Instead, the driver pulled over, jumped out of his car and walked towards David's car. David was a restaurant owner who carried large amounts of money in his car at night. He had also made a mistake - he carried a gun in his car with no training in its use. When David tried to scare the attacker off by showing him the gun, the attacker grabbed the gun. In the struggle for the gun, it went off, killing the attacker with one shot. David panicked and instead of going home to Aptos, he drove back over the hill to his parents' home in San Jose. Police identified David as the shooter because the attacker had written down his license plate number and had left it on his front seat.

Because of the publicity and the District Attorney's initial tactics, I knew I needed to gather a great team: the best people available. I hired Margaret Marr as our research attorney. A 1985 Graduate of Yale Law School, Ms. Marr has crafted outstanding legal briefs through the years and has helped win dismissals in many difficult cases. While she does contract research and writing, she is now a law school professor in Washington DC - mmarr@cruzio.com. Robert S. Bortnick was the private investigator (PI) on the team (Bortnick and Associates 831.423.5122.) Bortnick is a brilliant PI with over 30 years of national and international investigation experience. Phyliss Wasserstrom assisted in jury selection and with mojo.

The County's then District Attorney and his Chief Deputy, presented the case to the Grand Jury. They asked for and received a murder indictment. Afterwards, Superior Court Judge Yonts agreed with us that the District Attorneys had misrepresented the evidence to the Grand Jury. The Judge threw out the murder charges against David. The DA re-filed the murder charges and insisted on a plea to murder.

After we learned more about David attacker, we figured that the attacker might have acted dangerously crazy on other occasions. Leaving no stone unturned, Bortnick checked with the neighbors of the attacker's Denver girlfriend and found crucial evidence. A neighbor couple had been attacked in much the same fashion as David had experienced and described. We also found a policeman in Wyoming who had stood by while the attacker's girlfriend had removed her belongings and left him behind on a trip they were on just two weeks before his attack on David. We prepared a psychiatric autopsy which included exhibits showing pages from the man's diary where he described the ruin he was living- writing about his anger alienating everything and everyone dear to him.

We spent nearly a month in trial in Judge Tom Kelly's court presenting this and other evidence. The jury acquitted David of any murder (first or second-degree) and also of voluntary manslaughter. The jury deadlocked 10 - 2 in favor of acquittal on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Margaret Marr, Ben Rice, Robin Ziegler, Bob Bortnick, Phyllis Wasserstrom after the not guilty verdict (Jan 1997).

In an unprecedented move (because of the jury's strong rejection of the DA's case), the DA chose to re-file the remaining involuntary manslaughter charge. The judge indicated a county jail sentence of one year if David would agree to plead no contest but David rejected this offer. However, while preparing for the retrial of the remaining involuntary manslaughter charge, David's dad suffered a heart attack. He survived but David decided to end his family's trauma, and he accepted the judge's offer.

View the Feb. 1, 1997 Newspaper article in Adobe Acrobat
View the Feb. 8, 1997 Newspaper article in Adobe Acrobat

Mr. Twister and Ben Rice

The Defense of Mr. Twister Oddly enough, the case that garnered more interest than any of the so-called "high profile" cases I have handled was the defense of Mr. Twister. Mr. Twister is the Santa Cruz clown who makes balloon animals for children at the Wednesday Farmers Market downtown and for children's parties. Mr. Twister was arrested for violating a law that outlawed the act of putting money in someone else's parking meter without their permission! Putting quarters in others meters had been Mr. Twister's plight and my "pro bozo" representation of him received international attention. Besides appearances on national television and write-ups in People Magazine, Readers Digest and newspapers across America, Mr. Twister and I were featured on television and radio in numerous countries around the world.

More recently:

A sampling of cases:

A Santa Cruz gentleman found with 100 pounds of marijuana in his home and a million dollars in difficult to explain assets (one half million in cash and 7000 bottles of fine wine caught law enforcement's eye). While on $500,000.00 bail he was arrested in Sonoma County with seven pounds of marijuana and hashish. The marijuana in both instances was mainly destined to medical marijuana patients but the prison exposure was over ten years given the gentleman's unfortunate decision to sell to some friends out of state. The District Attorney asked for a six year sentence to state prison, the probation department (incredibly) asked for eight years. He is serving eight months in our county jail.

Another client had one pound of marijuana found in his car after he was pulled over by narcotics officers. Evidence suppressed after a Superior Court Judge agreed the officer lied: the car stop/ detention was illegal. Case dismissed.

Another client's case was dismissed and three lbs. of medical marijuana was returned.

A ten year veteran SJ police officer was charged with a felony battery on his son. A Superior Court Judge agreed with me that there was insufficient evidence and the case was dismissed.

Another client was charged with attempted murder: he pled to non-strike felony battery and served nearly all of his eight month sentence on home detention with an ankle bracelet.

A client, a UCSC graduate student faced charges after she resisted a professor's grab of the microphone she was using during a Q and A period after a lecture by a visiting professor. Client was charged with battery of the professor. Case dismissed.

A client was cited for honking her horn in support of marching demonstrators. Pro bono: Dismissed.

Another client was cited for having her dog off leash in a state park. My client is legally disabled and uses her licensed service dogs to assist her. Pro bono: Another stupid case where criminal charge was dropped.

A client is a school crossing guard and was threatened with criminal charges when he crossed kids while wearing his mountain man costume and holding his musket. Each year he is invited to local schools to teach children about the mountain people of the civil war era. Pro bono: No charges filed.

Representation of the Santa Cruz Measure K defendants sued by the city. Measure K was passed overwhelmingly by our voters and makes enforcement of marijuana crimes the lowest priority for the Santa Cruz Police Department. The measure also creates a commission which is charged with (among other things) review of the police department's practices relating to marijuana "crime" enforcement.

Pro bono: Negotiations led to a compromise. The measure survives but lost needed powers. It remains to be seen if this commission will accomplish what the voters support and what the commissioners appear to want.

I helped my friend and frequent colleague, Greg Coben (831.809.5593) represent a UCSC student arrested after a campus demonstration where she was arrested for assaulting police and leading the demonstration.

Pro bono: our client avoided expulsion and a jail sentence: she suffered two quarters of school suspension and one misdemeanor resisting arrest charge.

I am still WAMM's lawyer Pro bono. I represent WAMM patients locally and assist in the now five year old federal law suit against the first John Ashcroft, then Alberto Gonzales and nowAttorney General and Drug Enforcement Agency. The lion share of the credit for that litigation continues to belong to Professor Gerald Uelmen,; Graham Boyd, Allen Hopper and the American Civil Liberty Union's Drug Reform Policy Project; Daniel Abrahamson of Drug Policy Alliance; and outstanding attorneys from Bingham, McCutcheon's Pro Bono Litigation Dept., of San Francisco.

Voted best Santa Cruz lawyer in Metro newspaper reader's poll.

Client arrested with 3,000 + marijuana plants: illegal search motion granted, case dismissed.

Represented Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Founder: John Perry Barlow in a minor dustup.

Ben Rice with John Perry Barlow and co-counsel Greg Coben
You need to "Know Your Line"

Represented both City of Santa Cruz authorized medical marijuana dispensaries.

Gave a WAMM fundraising presentation regarding medical marijuana for the County Law Library with the ACLU's litigation director Allen Hopper.

(Allen, law librarian Dolores Wiemers and Ben after presentation with clever disguises in case......)

Client released from state mental hospital after three years- his previous attorney took tens of thousands of dollars from him and dumped him with a Not Guilty by reason of Insanity plea. ("Don't worry you'll be out in 6 months").

Jury trial, "Not Guilty" verdict in possession for sale of methamphetamines and cocaine.

Continuing education speaker at County Counsel's Association of California's annual conference- regarding medical marijuana.

Qualified in Santa Cruz Superior Court as an expert witness re. medical marijuana.

Clients included: Kuumbwa Jazz Center and Poet & Patriot Irish Pub (noise complaints- not guilty x3).

Monterey County: client's case dismissed on eve of trial with medical marijuana defense.

2003: Part of the WAMM legal team suing John Ashcroft and the DEA on behalf of Santa Cruz County and WAMM. See Medical Marijuana

February 2002: a school teacher was falsely accused of molesting a 16 year old student: Redwood City case dismissed the morning that jury selection was to begin.

2001 - 2004: Successfully secured the return of approximately 12 lbs. Of medical marijuana.

2001: First Santa Cruz trial acquittal applying medical marijuana defense- full return of medicine to client.

Summer of 2001: one month of trial when the District attorney charged a 34 year old Watsonville man with child molest charges that would have led to 27 years in prison. He was innocent and the jury found him so.

March 2001: Acquittal in Santa Cruz County's first medical marijuana case: client had 14 plants under cultivation after securing a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for his arthritis. (See the Medical Marijuana section)

February of 2001: a beer truck driven by my client at 85 mph in Monterey County was stopped by CHP. Client refused to take a chemical test but admitted drinking: Salinas jury hung and DA settled the case favorably for client.

Spring of 1999: acquittal in Santa Cruz domestic violence case.

Winter 1999: acquittal in vehicular manslaughter case.

1996: Voted best attorney in Good Times newspaper reader's poll.

These cases are a sampling of the cases I have handled. Obviously, I can't win a trial in every case. But "winning" means different things in different contexts. As a public defender I tried Santa Cruz County's only DUI murder case to go to trial. We "won" in that my client was convicted of manslaughter - not the murder charge the DA had tried him for. (The client had 9 prior DUI convictions). The majority of all cases settle. But the important thing is - I will go to trial for my clients. Not every attorney will.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area with stops in: Washington State, Hawaii, and Berkeley. I've been a resident of Santa Cruz since 1983. I am a graduate of Evergreen State College in Washington State and Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco. After working two years for the Center for Judicial Education and Research in Berkeley, I spent three years as a Public Defender in Santa Clara County, then three years as a Public Defender in Santa Cruz County. I have been in private practice as a sole practitioner since 1987.

Honors include: Twice voted President of the Santa Cruz County Criminal Defense Bar; Voted Best Attorney in Santa Cruz in the Good Times 1996 Readers Poll.

One of my proudest accomplishments: Being coach for the Santa Cruz High School Mock Trial team from 1991 through 1995. We won the Santa Cruz County Mock Trial Competition all four of those years and the team did well at the state competition each year.