After more than a year of litigation, San Andreas resident and medical marijuana patients’ rights advocate Jay Smith pleaded no contest Jan. 28 to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting another person in committing a felony.



Smith, 38, was initially charged with three felonies after he sold an ounce of marijuana to a member of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office who was working undercover on Jan. 4, 2010.



According to Deputy District Attorney Seth Matthews, the initial charges were for sales, cultivation and possession of marijuana. After more than a year of litigation, San Andreas resident and medical marijuana patients’ rights advocate Jay Smith pleaded no contest Jan. 28 to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting another person in committing a felony.Smith, 38, was initially charged with three felonies after he sold an ounce of marijuana to a member of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office who was working undercover on Jan. 4, 2010.According to Deputy District Attorney Seth Matthews, the initial charges were for sales, cultivation and possession of marijuana.

“This still feels like a loss to me,” Smith said. “To plead guilty to anything when you have not broken the law leaves a person feeling very sad and powerless.”



In his defense, Smith said the undercover deputy used a legitimate medical marijuana recommendation to join Smith’s K Care Collective and appear legitimate.



The recommendation belonged to Robert Shaffer of Ione, who was arrested in 2009 on drug charges. According to reports, Deputy Steve Avila had taken possession of Shaffer’s recommendation and used it to convince Smith that he was in fact Shaffer in the weeks leading up to the sting operation.

Shaffer later filed an official complaint against the Sheriff’s Office, stating that he had not given anyone permission to use his identity.



Smith adamantly denied that he had broken the law from the very start, claiming that he was legally operating a medical marijuana collective in compliance with state law when he sold the marijuana to the undercover deputy, who he thought was Shaffer.



Sheriff Dennis Downum said that Smith was executing a drug deal instead of operating a legitimate collective.



“Quite frankly, it doesn’t sound like he was any part of a collective,” Downum said in 2010. “With a collective there has to be a relationship of some sort. It can't be meeting somebody in a parking lot. In our opinion, you’re just selling drugs.”