SC Farmer Sues SLED, Attorney General and Dept. of Agriculture for Illegal Arrest

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PRESS RELEASE - (OCTOBER 4, 2022)-Attorneys for John Pendarvis, the licensed South Carolina hemp grower arrested in 2019 for growing hemp, have filed a federal lawsuit outlining a conspiracy between the SC State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the SC Attorney General’s Office, the SC Department of Agriculture and several officials including Attorney General Alan Wilson and SLED Chief Mark Keel to violate Pendarvis’ Civil Rights and illegally destroy millions of dollars of his legal hemp crop.

In addition, the lawsuit details multiple and ongoing incidents where state officials misled the court and Pendarvis’ attorneys in an attempt to cover up their actions.

“When a state judge denied their request to destroy Mr. Pendarvis’ crop, they ignored it. When the Attorney General’s opinion recommended a hearing to preserve due process, they conspired to ‘amend’ it. When the law required them to turn over communications related to the incident, they withheld them,” said Patrick McLaughlin, an attorney representing Pendarvis. “There is significantly more evidence showing their willfulness in violating Mr. Pendarvis’ rights than they ever had supporting that Mr. Pendarvis willfully violated the law.”

Using a number of official documents, emails and body camera video, the lawsuit details how, following Pendarvis’ request to amend his license to change the locations of his crop due to drought and soil conditions, instead of working with Pendarvis, authorities used this opportunity to pursue criminal charges against the fourth-generation farmer in an effort to make an example out of him under what the authorities themselves described as an “unclear” and “murky” law.

When Pendarvis asked to call his attorney before his crop was destroyed, the agents first agreed then, after a brief conversation between themselves without audio recording, they refused.

Furthermore, the state authorities proceeded to destroy Pendarvis’ hemp crop, even though Judge Diane S Goodstein (Chief Administrative Judge for the First Circuit) had previously denied SLED’s request to do just that. In fact, according to the lawsuit, during civil litigation, SLED refused to admit that this request was denied despite records that prove otherwise.

SLED later declined to inform Dorchester Magistrate Judge Ryan D. Templeton about Judge Goodstein’s denial when they sought a warrant to arrest Pendarvis. All charges against Pendarvis were later dismissed and his license to grow hemp was never suspended or revoked.

“We’re not talking about technicalities here. We’re talking about the top officials in the state ignoring the law, seeming to forget their oaths to uphold the Constitution and knowingly taking steps to avoid the directions of a state court judge” said Sen. Brad Hutto, who also represents Pendarvis. “The farmers of South Carolina deserve better.”