HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — God sometimes uses a surprise to get people’s attention. For Moses it was a burning bush that was not consumed. In Los Angeles there is a Bible teacher and Pastor of a church that believes marijuana is for the healing of all nations. This pastor who recently ran for Mayor of Los Angeles was arrested three years ago and sentenced to nearly five years in jail, but has yet to serve a day. On Fox’s Good Day L.A. with Jillian Barberie, Pastor Craig X Rubin, of Beverly Hills Green Cross, admitted, “Yes, the City of Angels has spent millions of dollars trying to send me to jail.”
This weekend was no different. Rubin attended the world’s largest marijuana expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event was put on by the Pastor’s family and brought jobs and millions of dollars to the Los Angeles’ sagging economy, but the event was marred by law enforcement’s desperate attempt to send Rubin to jail. Rubin who played the owner of Showtime’s Weeds medical marijuana club and worked as a consultant on the show is on probation for opening a church that provided legal medical marijuana.
Rubin has stated repeatedly and publicly that the owner of the official travel agency for High Times Magazine’s Cannabis Cup and the winner of a recent Cannabis Cup allegedly worked with law enforcement to have him arrested. Bret Bouge owner of Apothecary Travel can be seen on video surveillance footage arriving with 25 pounds of marijuana and what appear to be the police officers who arrested Pastor Rubin at Temple 420.
“Eyewitnesses allegedly place Bouge going in and out of a private door belonging to legalzoom.com at exact time of the arrest. We know that door was used by law enforcement agents all day on the day of our arrest from video surveillance.” Rubin went on, “Robert Shapiro, spokesman for legalzoom.com, then called pretending to want to represent me. There are simply too many coincidences and it is obvious to me by the footage and eyewitness accounts that Bouge was working with law enforcement that day.”
In court during the trial Rubin alleged that the majority of marijuana he was arrested for came from Bouge and his brother who can be seen in the videos communicating with what appear to be the agents who arrested Rubin. On May 20, 2009 Rubin was granted permission to leave L.A. County for the first time in years and he took the first opportunity he could to leave town and attend a Bible prophecy conference in St. Louis with Evangelist Perry Stone. He flew back to speak his family’s cannabis expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center only to be confronted by Bouge as he spoke from stage.
Things were going fine for Pastor for the first two days of the convention as Rubin promoted the Lord and his film career taking photos with fans and signing autographs. Rubin has appeared in the films: Haunted House of Chronic, Super High Me, American Drug War, Totally Baked and The Union and numerous television shows. However when Rubin was as guest speaker at the Oaksterdam University’s main stage at 4:20 PM speaking about his lifetime effort to end cannabis prohibition Bret Bouge allegedly began to harass “Mrs. X,” Rubin’s wife.
“From the stage I saw Bouge acting in a hostile manner with his face less than three inches from my wife’s. I wanted to jump off stage and deal with it, but made a commitment to Oaksterdam to be positive while on their stage.” After Rubin got off stage there was a confrontation between his entourage and Bouge. “If I have a problem or get in any trouble I go to jail for five years because I am still on probation, so I believe Bouge was there to create a problem, but we just walked away from him,” claimed the pastor.
Lead singer of Los Marijuanos Pony Boy stated, “Todd McCormick, one of the event organizers, was kicking Bouge out of the event until he offered to buy a booth for $1,500 just hours before the event was over.” Bouge paid the large sum in cash just to attend the final hour or two of the event and then never attempted to open the booth he paid for at the show — it didn’t appear that he came to promote his company, says Rubin.
Rubin believes the only reason Bouge paid the $1,500 cash was to start a confrontation and have the pastor jailed prior to this months hearing on the seizing of Rubin’s life savings. Rubin and his wife had invested their life’s savings into opening Temple 420 where they taught the Ten Commandments and preached the testimony of Christ to marijuana users. Rubin has since been given permission by the court to do the exact same thing and has opened a new location called the Beverly Hills Green Cross, a church that provides medical marijuana rather than a temple.
Rubin’s forfeiture case will be heard this month in front of Judge Leslie Ann Swain; the same judge who signed the arrest warrant for Rubin. and refused to see him as a pastor, as required by law under Penal Codes 1524 and 1525. On the arrest warrant officers wrote that “people are screened prior to being able to purchase marijuana.” Judge Swain crossed out that line and initialed it prior to the warrant be served.
At trial Rubin was not allowed to mention medical marijuana, the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights because in the trial judge’s words, “It could confuse the jury.”
On May 20th Rubin was asked by Judge Swain, after he informed the court that he now owned and operated a medical marijuana club, “Isn’t that exactly what you were arrested for?”
Rubin replied, “Yes, your honor, but I have judge’s permission to own and operate a medical marijuana club (facility).” Rubin then approached the bench and showed the judge his written minute order allowing him to do exactly what he is now convicted of and the reason his family’s life savings was seized by the government three years ago. Rubin’s next court date will be June 25, 2009 where he and his attorney Brett Rubin (no relation) will not only attempt to get back his money that was seized, but an additional $9,000 that law enforcement never reported.
During the campaign for mayor Rubin complained of the “unholy alliance” between Police Chief Bratton, who in the pastor’s opinion runs a “corrupt” Narcotics Division, and the mayor who the Chief endorsed in an unprecedented way. The pastor feels the City of Angels should be run by a godly person rather than a man who cheats on his wife. He lambasted the mayor on Fox News for being an adulterer, which has been proven true again as the still-married Mayor just admitted to yet another affair with another local Los Angeles reporter, KTLA anchor Lu Parker, who covered the mayor during this past campaign.
Rubin thinks KTLA’s reputation has been compromised because during his campaign for mayor KTLA used footage of him from a film saying it was real life. I think the reporter should be fired and the mayor should simply resign before judgment is brought upon our city for his immoral behavior. The pastor stated, “God hasn’t changed and if he punished the cities of Biblical leaders for their adultery he’ll do the same to our city. Especially since we are known as the City of Angels.”
View video with Craig X, “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” on CurrentTV:
http://current.com/items/90197377_the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-a-conversation-with-pastor-craig-x-rubin.htm .
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News Source: Beverly Hills Green Cross