UPDATE: Corning pot shop owner arrests Red Bluff councilman

This story first appeared on our Web site Wednesday, and was updated for Saturday's Corning Observer on Saturday. The earlier version was wrongly posted a second time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused

The owner of Tehama Herbal Collective in Corning placed a Red Bluff councilman under citizen’s arrest on Tuesday following an argument at the council meeting.

Ken Prather, owner of the pot shop, and partner with Jason Labonte in a medicinal marijuana political entity, Mother Earth Medicine in Red Bluff, attended the meeting to voice his opinion about two proposed ordinances on concerning medicinal marijuana.

Prather claims during the meeting, Councilman James E. Byrne, 83, kept falling asleep.

“I pointed this out while I was speaking at the podium,” said Prather. “I wasn’t the only to say something about it. The man didn’t appear to be listening.”

During a break in the meeting, Prather and Byrne were discussing the issue in the hallway just outside the council chamber.

“He started to yell and scream at me, saying ‘I hate you’ and started poking me in the chest with his finger,” Prather said.

He asked two Red Bluff police officers standing nearby if they witnessed the battery, but both said no.
“Other people around me saw what happened and told me it was battery and I should have Mr. Byrne arrested,” he said.

Byrne disagrees with Prather’s account.

“Mr. Prather threatened me, the whole City Council, staff and the police chief during the meeting,” Byrne said. “The discussion got heated and he provoked me. I can’t really say anymore than that.”

Although not injured, Prather placed Byrne under citizen’s arrest for battery, said the Red Bluff Police Department.

“I could have had him handcuffed and hauled away, but I told the police to wait until the meeting was over and to just issue Mr. Byrne a citation,” Prather said.

At the end of the council meeting, Byrne was issued a citation for misdemeanor battery by the police. The report will be forwarded to the Tehama County District Attorney’s Office.

“Nobody in the meeting stood up as Mr. Prather was making all kinds of accusations and said, ‘Hey, that’s not true. I stand by what occurred,” said Byrne, who is serving in his first full-term in office.

The council, on a 4-1 vote, approved an urgency ordinance to ban medical marijuana cooperatives, collectives, and dispensaries and the cultivation of marijuana.

It was Byrne who voted against the ban.