Alan Ager, shown in 1997, was placed on suicide watch at the county jail after being accused of molesting a child. (IJ archive)A Nicasio physician who waged a long legal war with Marin authorities over marijuana cultivation was back in jail Thursday on allegations of child molestation.
Alan Lawrence Ager, a retired podiatrist, was taken into custody by sheriff's investigators without incident Thursday at his Nicasio home, sheriff's Sgt. Mike Crain said. Ager, 59, was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of continuous sexual abuse on a child and lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14.
Ager was scheduled for arraignment today in Marin County Superior Court.
Crain said the allegations of abuse were reported to authorities recently and that Thursday investigators had probable cause to make the arrest. Sheriff's officials released few details about the case and where the alleged conduct occurred, but said there were numerous incidents and that Ager is not related to the child.
"It's still early in the investigation," Crain said. "It's safe to say this wasn't a one-time incident."
Ager's bail amount was increased to $1 million to ensure the safety of the alleged victim, he said.
Ager was unavailable for comment Thursday night at the county jail, where a staff member said Ager had been placed on suicide watch.
For Ager, the case is the latest of many legal battles with county law enforcement.
In 1999, he was sentenced to a year in jail for growing hundreds of marijuana plants he said were for patients in need of medical pot. His son Daniel, then 22, also was sentenced to six months in jail for selling marijuana cultivated by his father to an undercover police informant.
The case, which dated to 1996, included two task force raids on Ager's property, a mistrial, a bid by Ager to withdraw his guilty pleas, claims by Ager that sheriff's deputies assaulted him in jail, and a legal battle over whether a jail videotape of the alleged incident could be shown in court.
In sentencing Ager, Marin Superior Court Judge John Sutro ruled he should be able to possess up to an ounce of marijuana at any time during his five years of probation. The ruling marked an overt acknowledgment by the court that Ager qualifies under the state's medical marijuana law to use marijuana to deal with chronic pain he suffered as the result of a car accident several years before.
Ager is a former director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana.
Click to expand...