Pot and gun bust for Mendocino legal chief

Word of advice: Do not go speeding down the highway with a janky license plate light.

More words of advice: Do not go speeding down the highway with a janky license plate light when you have marijuana and a concealed gun in the car.

And even more advice: Do NOT go speeding down the highway with a janky license plate light when you have marijuana and a concealed gun in the car when you’re the appointed legal chief of Mendocino County.

Maybe I should’ve been present to give interim legal chief Doug Losak some pointers before he was cited Tuesday morning for all of the above.

The Ukiah Daily Journal reports that Losak has been ordered to appear in court August 28 for an arraignment. The DA’s office has not yet “started its review process to decide what, if any, charges it will file against Losak.”

Losak — who was appointed as interim Mendocino County counsel as of June 23 — was pulled over on Highway 101 at Lake Mendocino Drive Tuesday morning around 2 a.m. for speeding and the aforementioned inadequate license plate light.

Captain Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said that the smell of marijuana in the car prompted a vehicle search. Smallcomb reported that deputies found a firearm in a box under the driver’s seat, and a magazine of bullets and three-to-four grams of marijuana in the glove compartment.

While the gun was registered in Losak’s name, he did not have a concealed weapon’s permit. Losak told deputies that he had the gun for protection because “he was receiving threats,” Smallcomb said.

There was no doctor’s recommendation for the pot.

Losak himself could not be reached — surprise surprise — Tuesday morning by the Ukiah Daily Journal for comment.