Attorney’s seek to depose Compton Mayor Aja Brown in ongoing marijuana dispensary case

In an email obtained exclusively by 2Urbangirls, lawyers for the JCJ Corporation, which is seeking $100 million in damages against the City of Compton based on Craig Cornwell illegally condemning their marijuana dispensary, are demanding to depose Aja Brown “within the next 30 days.”

“Finally, please advise dates upon which former Mayor Brown can be deposed within in the next 30 days. If you have not provided such dates before 12:00 noon tomorrow, we will find her and serve her — wherever she can be located. I would prefer not to have to serve the former mayor in public, however, the time has come for her to give her sworn testimony. Please advise.”

As many of you remarked, during the June 22 city council meeting, Aja Brown repeatedly stated “she was not going to be deposed.”

Apparently, Mayor Brown was responding to Compton’s outside lawyers notifying her she was going to be deposed in the JCJ Corporation v. Compton case, the same case that could be one of the reasons Craig Cornwell’s contract as Compton’s City Manager was not renewed.

JCJ claims that Cornwell served their business an illegal search warrant to sieze money and marijuana from their business, and failed to provide them with a proper accounting of what was taken.  Cornwell, City Clerk Alita Godwin, and former City Manager Cecil Rhambo have already been deposed in this ongoing manner.

The email states because “Mayor-Elect Emma Sharif and Councilman Galvan’s decision to hold Compton City Manager Craig Cornwell partially accountable for the warrantless and unconstitutional closure” of JCJ’s business, JCJ will now focus its efforts on “the former Compton officials who were directly involved in attempting to extort my clients.”

Would Aja Brown be aware of these activities?

Around the same time the alleged “illegal” raids were occuring in the city of Compton, a former employee of then Rep. Janice Hahn was prosecuted for taking bribes from illegal dispensaries in Compton.  It was alleged he would sit in his office, inside of Compton City Hall, and point to pictures of Brown calling her his “sister” and spoke of his “connections” to the Code Enforcement department, which reported to the City Attorney’s office, which was then run by Cornwell.

Related: Compton City Attorney “can’t recall” discussing city business 

When Cornwell was made to testify in Kimbrew’s federal trial for bribery and extortion, he “couldn’t recall” whether he discussed city business with Kimbrew or not.  Cornwell also didn’t like being compared to a “drug czar“.

2Urbangirls is trying to confirm an interview with Michael Fletcher, one of the owners of JCJ Corporation, to find out once and for all whether Craig Cornwell and Compton authorized their business to operate.

Stay tuned.