Former Barstow Mayor Paul Courtney and four other people have pleaded not guilty to felony tax evasion and illegal marijuana cultivation charges in connection with a July 2022 raid at a warehouse owned by a Chinese countertop manufacturing company.
Courtney, who served as mayor of the city from December 2020 until December 2024 but decided not to run again, pleaded not guilty in Victorville Superior Court on July 31 to one felony count of cultivating more than six marijuana plants and one felony count of tax evasion. He will next appear in court on Sept. 4 for a pretrial hearing, and has been ordered not to leave the state without written permission from the court, records show.
Courtney, 64, told the Southern California News Group last month he was not involved in any kind of illegal marijuana cultivation and was unaware of the grow at the Lenwood Road warehouse owned by American Quartz Inc., headquartered in China. He said he was unaware he had been charged with the crimes until a reporter called and asked him to comment.
A dozen other defendants connected to the same case were charged with the same offenses by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office on July 2.
Acting on a tip by a city building inspector, Barstow police raided the warehouse on July 7, 2022. Police discovered more than 15,000 marijuana plants crowding 10 separate rooms and freshwater lines feeding into the warehouse from outside, according to court records and police reports.
Defendants Jordan, Zachary and Jacob Woolsey, all brothers from Canyon Lake, were at the site when police served the search warrant, as was defendant Natasha Lyn Stratton and eight Chinese nationals also charged in case: Ming Fang Wu, 49, Yong Chao Huang, 59, Wo Shun Yang, 53, Cui Ping Zhang, 66, En Dan Li, 27, Ai Qin Lin, 59, Han Jun Chen, 37, and Hong Wei, 65.
The Woolsey brothers appeared in Victorville Superior Court on Aug. 12 and pleaded not guilty to the charges. They will next appear in court on Oct. 2 for a pretrial hearing.
Stratton, 36, appeared in court on Aug. 7 and pleaded not guilty to the charges during her arraignment. She also will next appear in court on Oct. 2 for a pretrial hearing, court records show.
All the defendants who appeared in court in the last month remain out of custody on their own recognizance. The eight Chinese defendants, however, have not appeared in court. Bench warrants have been issued for their arrest, but their whereabouts are unknown, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cary Epstein said Friday, Aug. 22. The case will remain open until the defendants are either arrested or appear in court voluntarily. Epstein could not comment or speculate on their custody status or threat of deportation.
“I have no specific information about their current location. If they are arrested, they will be brought before the court for arraignment and the court will determine their custody status at the time,” Epstein said.
Epstein also could also not comment about whether there is a suspected organized crime element to the case, citing the ongoing investigation. “Obviously we’re still looking at all aspects,” he said.
During the 2022 police raid at the warehouse, one of several comprising a warren of warehouses on the the 75-acre property owned by American Quartz Inc., all the named defendants in the case except Courtney were on site, according to police reports filed in the case. Jordan Woolsey told police he applied with the city for a marijuana cultivation permit but had not been approved.
He said he and his brothers rented the location from American Quartz Inc. and he intended to operate a legitimate marijuana operation at the site. They were there the day of the raid to drop off supplies. He denied knowing any of the Chinese immigrants working at the site, and his brothers refused to talk to police, according to the police reports.
Five of the workers told police they found their jobs via the app Platform 168, reportedly used by millions of Chinese people worldwide to find jobs and housing, among other things. They said they had been picked up in the middle of the night by a man in a large white and taken to the site, where they had been for about two weeks working in a variety of duties, mainly cleaning the warehouse and watering and feeding the plants, but also to cook and feed the other workers, according to police reports. They told police they were never paid for their work, according to police reports.
Another worker seen driving a Gold Mercedes SUV onto the property and entering the warehouse told police his job was to bring water and feed to the location, and that it was his first time at the warehouse, according to police reports.
According to a probable-cause declaration filed by Epstein in the case, a security guard stationed at the warehouse told investigators the day of the raid he noticed Courtney at the location monthly. Courtney, according to the declaration, would drive through the gate and enter the building through the employee entrance.
An American Quartz employee, according to Epstein’s declaration, told investigators she saw Courtney at the warehouse an average of twice a month, and that Courtney would walk straight back to where the warehouse offices were located. Investigators reviewed surveillance videos and noted a newer model Bentley, with a customized license plate reading #PACE1, pulling out of a bay door at the warehouse.
Courtney confirmed he owns such a vehicle with the customized plate, which refers to his janitorial services company, PACE Services. He confirmed PACE is an acronym for Paul Anthony Courtney Enterprises.
Courtney, who could not be reached for comment Friday, told the Southern California News Group in July that when he was mayor, he tried to visit all major businesses in the city monthly, and American Quartz was among them.
According to Epstein’s declaration, a supplemental investigation by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration concluded that the “defendants and property owner” did not obtain a cannabis tax permit and license from the state Department of Cannabis Control, thereby evading cannabis excise taxes.