Crime & Safety

Letter to the Editor: Dave McDonald Seeks Legal Help in Suing County of Marin

Former owner of the Pleasure Principle is hoping to sue the county to have the $29K seized in the March 2011 raid of his shop returned to him.

Dear Marin Community: 

The Pleasure Principle is now a memory in Mill Valley history – the last of the old retail shops that spanned an era – more than 48 years in business ending in March 2011.

As the owner of that business, I am still hoping to be represented by an organization or an attorney on at least seven civil issues that include: 

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  • Wrongful seizure of money ($29,215), only about $1,650 of which was actually mine
  • Denial of a vegetarian diet in Marin County Jail, which in 99 days cost me one-quarter of my body weight
  • Not being able to post my house for bail
  • Near total destruction of the interior of my shop (photos above)
  • An “in the field” narcotic test, which is frequently 70 percent in error
  • False allegations by an “informant” of such character that they could not use him to testify in court
  • The destruction of an upcoming secondary profession by the deposit of specially marked bills that had taken more than 48 years to collect and were the basis of an upcoming photo/art line titled “Worlds Within Worlds.”

Although the Marin County District Attorney's Office said in August 2012 that the $29,215 would be returned to me, I have yet to see a penny of it. That is because my former landlord, Steve McNamara, has a lien on it, though I only owe him $11,000 in back rent.

I have since filed a claim against the County of Marin for $900,000, which was “returned without action” having only addressed one issue – the vegetarian starvation issue allegation, which they claimed was not filed in a timely manner, within six months of getting out of jail. But more than $600 of the money that was seized was taken off my person, which negated my ability to buy from their “commissary.”

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It took a year and a half of trial to determine that no illegal drugs were involved, and then, a struggle to get them to offer to return the money. Within six months if that time, I filed a claim against the county, and since the money and the starvation issues are tied, I should have an automatic win.

If anyone in Marin and beyond happens to know the right representation/civil attorney, this case is unique and strongly based in basic civil rights, let alone police misconduct. If interested, please call (415) 388-8588 and ask for “Even.”

Thanks,

Dave McDonald

P.S. If anyone doubts the government behind the government has become far-reaching and aggressive, see the San Francisco Chronicle story on the multi-billion dollar seizure issue. Many properties are taken without ever having to go to court. The Constitution is left in the dust.

And yes, I was the first person in the world to have coined the term “theftiture.” The land of the free has become the land of the fee to become the land of the fiasco and the corporate states of the U.S.

Dave McDonald is the former owner of the Pleasure Principle, the novelty shop that occupied 74 Throckmorton Ave. for more than 48 years, until March 2011, when narcotics agents raided it, accusing him of selling large quantities of methamphetamine and/or meth precursor ephedrine to undercover officers. Those substances later tested negative for both of the alleged narcotics, and the eight felony charges McDonald initially faced were knocked down to three. McDonald was found guilty of one of those charges – selling a fake illegal narcotic, a conviction that he’s appealing.


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