SANTA ANA – A lawsuit filed Monday against the city of Santa Ana and Mayor Miguel Pulido seeks a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from enacting ballot Measure BB, which enabled a lottery to select 20 entrepreneurs to operate marijuana dispensaries.

The suit additionally accuses Pulido of receiving “financial benefits” from a Santa Ana medical marijuana dispensary and intervening with police on the establishment’s behalf.

“The medical marijuana collective affiliated with Pulido, in which he has a pecuniary or membership interest and from which he has received money, successfully obtained a city medical marijuana permit through the lottery process,” the suit alleges.

The allegations in the suit are “unequivocally and categorically false,” Pulido said in a phone interview Monday.

“I’ve not been involved in any of the lottery process,” Pulido said. “I don’t know anything about the workings or methodology and had no involvement whatsoever. For someone to make allegations I influenced the process is preposterous.”

The city contracted with White Nelson Diehl Evans LLP, an Irvine-based certified public accounting firm, to handle the lottery, Pulido said.

Attorney Matthew Pappas filed the suit against Pulido and the city of Santa Ana in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of another pot collective, Sky High Holistic, and others.

The lawsuit alleges that prior to the November 2014 vote, a person hired by the city, who wasn’t identified, solicited $25,000 payments from individuals affiliated with existing marijuana collectives in Santa Ana. The individuals were promised successful inclusion in the lottery and assistance finding a location for a dispensary if the money was paid to support Measure BB, the suit contends.

The lawsuit also alleges Pulido and other city officials received limousine services, expensive dinners, money and gifts from individuals seeking control over Santa Ana’s medical marijuana market.

It also contends that following the lottery, several successful permit applicants, along with Pulido, Santa Ana city and police officials, agreed to create an enforcement program to close existing medical marijuana collectives.

After being approved by voters, 20 dispensary lottery winners were announced in February.

The enforcement program included cutting off water and power to buildings where competing collectives operated, the removal of license plates from vehicles used by police and city officials to prevent detection and destructive raids, according to the suit.

The suit follows Pappas’ release of several video clips last week that capture Santa Ana police raiding Sky High Holistic in May.

According to Pappas, the clips depict police consuming edible marijuana from the dispensary, making discriminatory remarks about a woman at the collective who is an amputee and destroying surveillance cameras.

The Santa Ana Police Department’s internal affairs unit is investigating the conduct of the officers who took part in the raid.

Several other lawsuits have also been filed against the city of Santa Ana since the passage of Measure BB.

Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee on June 2 granted a temporary restraining order against the city of Santa Ana.

A hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction in the case, which would further restrain the dispensaries from moving forward, is slated for Friday.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@ocregister.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline