Lea este artículo en español aquí.
San Benito County has agreed to pay $800,000 to a hemp grower as part of a settlement in a 2025 federal lawsuit in which the grower alleged the county Agricultural Commissioner’s office denied him due process and engaged in racial discrimination.
The allegations in hemp grower Pedro Ibarra’s lawsuit were based on two permit denials by the Agricultural Commissioner for participation in the state’s industrial hemp program in two consecutive years starting in 2024.
In his lawsuit filed in May 2025, Ibarra alleged that his 2024 and 2025 applications for the industrial hemp program were denied after an “argument” with then-acting San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner Ken Griffin in 2023. He went on to claim that the Agricultural Commissioner’s office justified the denial by falsely accusing him of violating the terms of his registration and of illegally cultivating cannabis.
To support his claim, Ibarra cited a successful 2025 appeal to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which found that the county did not provide him with due process to appeal the denial of his application and that the county did not provide any notice of violations while he was in operation between 2021 and 2023.
The county denied all the allegations in its court response, saying Ibarra was “not always and/or fully compliant with all regulatory requirements” for the state’s hemp program.
San Benito County Counsel Greg Priamos said neither the county nor Griffin would comment on the settlement other than that “we felt that resolving the matter was in the best interest of the county.”
Ibarra, who works with the California Grown Hemp distribution group, said he could only state that “it has been settled” and that he could not disclose any details.
He added he recently submitted his application for growing hemp in northern San Benito County. He said in addition to hemp he also grows other crops in the county including wheat and iceberg lettuce.
According to the settlement agreement provided by Priamos, the county does not admit any fault. However, in addition to the compensation for alleged personal injuries, the county also agreed that Griffin would not have any “face-to-face contact” with Ibarra.
While the county was dealing with the case, officials appointed Griffin as Agricultural Commissioner in January after he served as the acting commissioner for four years.
The county also agreed to “withdraw” the two permit denial letters from Ibarra’s file as part of the deal.
“Said letters will no longer be maintained in plaintiff’s administrative registration file and will not be relied upon by the office in processing future H.E.M.P. [Hemp Entity Management Program] registrations for plaintiff,” the settlement reads.
Following the settlement, which was signed by both parties in June, U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California Judge Noel Wise signed the chase dismissal on June 23.
According to the order, both parties agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Ibarra cannot sue again for the same claim. The order does not make any mention of a settlement by the parties.
A trial was scheduled to begin March 8, 2027, in San Jose.
While the settlement was reached almost five months ago, it appears that at least two county supervisors did not know the case was over.
Supervisor Mindy Sotelo told BenitoLink she did not recall if there had been a report out by county counsel on the case.
Supervisor Angela Curro said she had not received a report on the status of the case and referred BenitoLink to Priamos. Curro added that the last action by the board was providing direction to county counsel several months ago, but could not give a specific date.
Supervisors Dom Zanger and Kollin Kosmicki did not respond to questions regarding whether the county had disclosed that the case had been settled.
There is no record in the county board’s agenda minutes that the county reported the settlement to the public. The last time the county board discussed the case in closed session was on May 26, according to board agendas. Priamos announced following the closed session that there was no reportable action for that case.
According to court records, the case was dismissed nearly two months after parties held a case management conference in which the court gave the parties until Aug. 11 to agree on a resolution without having to go through a trial.
As of Oct. 30, Hollister Hemp Horizons, LLC was the only registered company in San Benito County for the state’s hemp program, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s registry.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website covering San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and to providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.