Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct a statement that previously stated Griffin remained on the job following a separate investigation. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
After having his hemp registration denied for two years, local grower Pedro Ibarra is suing the county in federal court, alleging racial discrimination and denial of due process.
Ibarra, who claims he is the only Latino minority hemp grower in San Benito County, is requesting compensatory and punitive damages “in an amount according to proof, which is fair, just and reasonable.”
In court documents filed initially in May and amended on Aug. 20 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Ibarra argues his 2024 and 2025 applications for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) industrial hemp program were denied after an “argument” with San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner Ken Griffin on July 7, 2023.
The lawsuit also names agricultural department employees Donna Carbonero and Karen Overstreet.
The hemp plant looks identical to a cannabis plant but does not have the high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that makes the latter psychoactive. Hemp is used as material for a variety of products like textiles, paper and biodegradable plastics.
According to the filing, Griffin denied the 2024 applications claiming Ibarra violated the terms of his registration, engaged in deceptive business practices and illegally cultivated cannabis.
However, Ibarra calls those accusations false and a means for the county to justify the “racially and personally motivated decision” to deny his applications. The lawsuit states the denial letter did not provide specifics as to the codes that were violated or dates when the alleged violations occurred.
The lawsuit alleges: “They will not permit Mr. Ibarra to earn a living growing hemp in San Benito County despite knowing that Mr. Ibarra legally qualifies for the registration because, as they told him, they were not going to let ‘Latinos like him’ grow in their county.”
It adds that Griffin told Ibarra on July 7 in regards to the illegal cultivation of cannabis accusations that, “All you Mexicans are the same”; “You are embarrassing me by drawing the attention of Fish and Game’’; “You need to go back to Watsonville and work in the fields”; and “I don’t care if you lose millions of dollars.”
According to the lawsuit, Ibarra requested a denial hearing but was told he did not have a right to a “formal appeal” and was denied any hearings for his 2024 application.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges, the agricultural commissioner’s office changed its reasoning for denial and “scoured” past reports to find “technical violations” that had not been raised previously, in order to cite “‘historical violations’” as the reason for denial.
“No other H.E.M.P farmer in San Benito County was subject to similar violations for the same alleged technical non-conformities now being called violations,” the lawsuit states.
It also states that for the 2025 application, Ibarra did receive a hearing by the California Department of Food and Agriculture in May in which the state agency reversed the 2025 denial.
In that hearing, the lawsuit states Griffin admitted to not holding a hearing for the alleged violations, admitted to never notifying Ibarra of the alleged violations, and admitted to not having information or evidence that Ibarra cultivated cannabis.
According to the hearing documentation included in the lawsuit, CDFA found the county did not provide Ibarra with due process to appeal the denial of his applications.
“None of the communications indicate that appellant had repeated failures or that his failures were somehow qualitatively different than those of other growers,” the CDFA’s decision states. “Nor is there any indication the county advised appellant that based on his repeated failures it ever intended to issue him a notice of violation.”
Griffin said he had no comment as the case was going through the legal process. Ibarra’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ibarra said his hemp registry is active and that he is farming about 400 acres in the northern part of the county. His company, California Grown Hemp, does not appear on the CDFA’s industrial hemp cultivators registry as of Oct. 7.
San Benito County Deputy Counsel Rebekah Mojica said the county does not comment on pending litigation. She also said though the conditional hemp registration was approved following the appeal, he has not submitted the payment required to finalize the registration.
“As a result, the registration was never activated, and to the county’s knowledge, there is no active hemp cultivation authorized under the subject registration,” she said.
The case is scheduled for an initial management hearing for Nov. 18 at 9 a.m.
According to San Benito County code, county staff including agricultural commissioner’s office, public health and sheriff can enter areas where hemp is grown to enforce state and county’s laws.
Griffin is also the subject of a separate investigation by the county.
In February, the county announced it had initiated a third-party investigation into allegations involving Griffin after an email was sent to the county, state agencies and the media alleging Griffin was in a sexual relationship with a farmer in “return for favors” from him.
The county has not provided updates on that case since it announced the investigation despite multiple BenitoLink requests. Griffin was placed on leave for three days related to this investigation, he told BenitoLink.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and 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.