Tim Beck, who described himself as a medical marijuana grower with home delivery customers in the beach cities, will let the enterprise go to seed after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of possessing more than an ounce of pot.
“We’re happy with the deal, I guess,” said Beck.
With his plea in Superior Court, prosecutors dropped felony charges of cultivating marijuana and cultivating marijuana for sale.
He must serve three years probation, perform 240 hours of community service, and cannot be involved in dispensing medical marijuana.
Beck, 63, of Torrance, has appeared frequently before the Hermosa Beach City Council to push for limited beach nudity, and to make a case that beach sand could be frozen to prevent its migration to other shores, and dry ice could be used to freeze oil spills for cleanup.
He also had consulted with Hermosa and Manhattan Beach officials about what he believed to be a legal nonprofit pot dispensary.
Beck had been free on $25,000 bail since he was arrested in an August 2011 raid on his home, in which police seized 239 pot plants he was growing.
Beck said he had a license to grow marijuana and sell it for medical purposes, and he was delivering it to patients after they prove they have a physician’s prescription. He said his clients included a 60-year-old cancer patient whose oncologist prescribes pot smoking to stimulate his appetite.
Home delivery saves “sick people having to drive to a dispensary,” Beck said.
Beck made court appearances acting as his own attorney. When he announced to Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin that he would defend himself, the judge took pains to advise Beck that being one’s own lawyer is not always the best move.
“It’s a bad idea,” the judge said. But he added, “It is your right.”
Brandlin told Beck that non-lawyers might be unaware of steps that lawyers would take to defend a client.
At one point Beck turned down a plea offer that would have called for 90 days community service and three years probation, in exchange for a guilty plea to one felony count.
Beck proposed a plea agreement calling for him to make a $5,000 donation to Harbor General Medical Center, and the judge told him that such a donation would not typically be included in an agreement with a prosecutor.
