Draft:Matthew Pappas

Matthew Pappas (born May 31, 1967) is a Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney. He has represented clients in cases involving medical marijuana, civil asset forfeiture and religious rights. In a video released by Pappas in 2015, Santa Ana Police officers were shown destroying video cameras, playing games, insulting a disabled woman in a wheelchair and allegedly eating cannabis edibles. Several officers were charged by the Orange County District Attorney's Office for their conduct during the raid. After a lawsuit was filed by Pappas, the city paid $100,000.00 to settle the case.

Career
Some of Pappas’s cases have included the Schwab family in their efforts against the state of Kansas after the state took custody of their children, representing former marine Kristoffer Lewandowski in his legal battle against the state of Oklahoma,  representing Tony Jalali, a commercial property owner in Anaheim, California who faced civil asset forfeiture by the federal government and the city of Anaheim,  and representing Marla James, a disabled patient who was volunteering as manager of the Sky High Holistic medical marijuana dispensary on the day of a Santa Ana Police Department raid in 2015. With help from the Institute for Justice, a Washington D.C. organization that joined the Jalali forfeiture case as amicus curiae, the federal government dismissed its case against the Anaheim landlord and other landlords from Los Angeles and Santa Ana who were also represented by Pappas.

Pappas has also been involved in religious rights cases, specifically cases involving the use of cannabis as religious sacrament. In a matter involving the JAH Healing church in Big Bear, Pappas represented the church and its minister in a trial that took place over several months in 2019. The church claimed it was Christian and “believes that the fragrant cane ingredient of the holy anointing oil described in Exodus 30:22 is cannabis,” as set forth in filings made by Pappas. The church was also a part of the Sacramental Life Churches, an organization with an ecclesiastic form of government led by a board of ministers. It had a central place of worship, ordained ministers, regular Sunday services and “a distinct form of religious practice, literature about its beliefs and books of scripture,” according to the filings. Despite finding the church had the right to operate, the trial judge issued an injunction effectively shutting it down. The church filed an appeal that it later lost. Pappas then, on behalf of the church, filed a petition for review to the California Supreme Court.

Following a controversial raid in 2018, Pappas began representing the Vault Church in Jurupa Valley, California. Members of the church protested and an agreement with the City of Jurupa Valley was eventually reached that allowed the church to reopen. It was during this time Pappas debated controversial professor and attorney John Eastman, formerly the dean of Chapman University School of Law and a lawyer who worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election on behalf of former President Donald Trump. The debate was about cannabis church rights and was heard on KPCC radio and NPR.

There has been significant controversy surrounding Pappas’s cases including claims that authorities raided his home in Orange County, California to retaliate for lawsuits he’d filed against government agencies as well as his unsuccessful effort to become Long Beach City Attorney in 2014. Pappas had won a major case against the City of Long Beach in 2011 and alleged the city had illegally targeted and cited him as well as several patients. In lawsuits and the press, Pappas claimed dispensary raids and other actions by the City of Long Beach were harming patients and patient advocates and specifically targeting people of color. During his 2014 campaign for Long Beach City Attorney, Pappas stated publicly that excessive shootings by the Long Beach Police Department were costing the city millions of dollars.

Prior to the Pack v. City of Long Beach case, Pappas represented Marla James and three other disabled individuals in a federal action against the cities of Costa Mesa and Lake Forest, California (James v. City of Costa Mesa, et al.) claiming the cities were violating their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Although U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford was sympathetic to the patients, he ultimately ruled against them. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later affirmed the judge's decision, but not without a significant dissent by one of the panel judges that heard the appeal. The James case is used by schools to teach and students to learn about relevant provisions of the ADA.

In 2011, Pappas’s daughter, Victoria, began working for his law office and diligently supported the rights of patients before her death in 2018. From 2011 to 2015, Victoria served as Pappas's assistant in trials, appeals as well as traveled with Pappas to meet then Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in San Francisco regarding the federal forfeiture cases.

Personal Life
Pappas was born on 31 May, 1967, in Los Angeles, California. His father, John Pappas, was a Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy who worked in the L.A. County Superior Court as a bailiff and thereafter as a court clerk. He was the court clerk in the Charles "Tex" Watson trial involving the Charles Manson murders and announced the verdict in that case. After completing law school, Pappas's father passed the California Bar Exam and began practicing law in 1972. Pappas's maternal grandfather was attorney Kenneth H. Clausen (1916-2009) who built and operated a large and reputable insurance coverage law firm in Los Angeles in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Pappas grew up in Bellingham, Washington and attended Sehome High School. He later moved to Southern California where he attended Western State University College of Law in Fullerton. While a student, he was invited to serve as a judicial extern for the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr., United States District Judge for the Central District of California. Pappas earned his juris doctor degree and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1994.

In 1988, Pappas married Divina Hardin. The couple had four children, Sebastian, Victoria, Bryce, and Bailey. In 2015, the couple separated and filed for divorce. Tragically, Victoria Pappas suffered a major injury when she was attacked in Las Vegas in 2011. In-part related to the traumatic brain injury she suffered in 2011, Victoria passed away on February 2, 2018. Victoria dreamt and received the “Nine Epiphanies,” a religious scripture, and was an advocate for the rights of medical cannabis patients. Following Victoria's death, Pappas was diagnosed with depression and was subsequently suspended from the practice of law for 90-days. Pappas's suspension ended on June 26, 2023.