Point Reyes Light - September 23, 1999

Nicasio pot doc agrees to be sentenced

After three arrests and six years of legal entanglements, a remorseful-sounding Dr. Alan Ager surrendered in his long battle with county prosecutors and agreed to be sentenced next month for growing marijuana at his Nicasio home.

The foot doctor had been trying to reverse his guilty plea on five felony pot charges that stemmed from two separate raids on his home in January and in 1996. In those raids, lawmen seized several pounds of marijuana, as well as thousands of marijuana clippings capable of being cloned into mature plants.

During the January raid, just weeks before Dr. Ager was to be retried for his 1996 arrest, lawmen also arrested his son Daniel Ager for selling a half-pound of marijuana earlier that week to a police informant in the Lucky's parking lot in Fairfax.

Dr. Ager pleaded guilty in February to all the charges against him - then asked the court two months later if he could get a new attorney, withdraw his guilty pleas, and face a jury trial.

But at a Marin Superior Court hearing on Wednesday, Dr. Ager apologized to Judge John A. Sutro for prolonging his case and agreed to be sentenced.

"This has been a tremendous family tragedy for us," he told the judge, "and I want to apologize for putting you through this."

Following his father's appearance before Judge Sutro, Daniel Ager entered the courtroom and pleaded guilty to one felony count of selling marijuana. In exchange, prosecutors dropped felony charges of marijuana possession and cultivation against him.

Dr. Ager's defense attorney, Jeff Segal, told The Light that the foot doctor has long wanted to put his legal troubles behind him and did not want to face another round of litigation. "He wants to get this behind his family for once and for all," said Segal.

In exchange for the Agers' guilty pleas, prosecutors have agreed to ask that both father and son receive no more than one year each in Marin County jail.

However, after an alleged confrontation with Sheriff's deputies during their booking on Jan. 27, both Agers insist on not serving their sentence in Marin County. Daniel Ager asked the court that he serve any jail sentence in another county.

Segal said this week that he would consider it "very inappropriate" for Dr. Ager, one of the few people certified by the county as a medical marijuana smoker, to serve jail time for his conviction.

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