Plaintiffs in River Valley case ask judge to enforce order, call off revocation hearing

In Tuesday’s filing, 2600 Holdings (doing business as Southern Roots) asked Wright to order the Alcoholic Beverage Control division to comply with the judge’s previous order, enjoin the ABC from holding a license revocation hearing scheduled for Nov. 28 and require the defendants to show why they shouldn’t be held in contempt. 

In Wright’s Nov. 3 ruling, he sided with the plaintiff that the state Medical Marijuana Commission erred when it awarded a cultivation license to River Valley Relief. Wright found that the license was awarded despite River Valley’s facility being situated closer than 3,000 feet from the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Facility, which met the commission’s definition of a school. Wright also found that the license was issued to a business entity that was different from the one on River Valley’s application. 

Tuesday’s filing states that the judge should “order Defendants to comply with the court’s November 3 Order without further delay.” In Wright’s ruling, he said the license was issued improperly but stopped short of revoking the license. Instead, Wright said the state should “take all steps necessary to remedy these violations.” 

The filing asks Wright “enjoin ABC from holding a hearing to reconsider this Court’s order.” Last week, Arkansas Cannabiz and the Arkansas Times reported that the ABC would hold a revocation hearing in which River Valley, owned by brothers Storm Nolan and Kane Whitt, would argue its case before Chandler. 

The lawsuit cites an article posted to the Arkansas Times last Thursday. 

Chandler’s ruling could be appealed to the full ABC board, according to ABC spokesman Scott Hardin. A ruling by the ABC could be appealed to circuit court, Hardin said. 

The revocation hearing is set for 1 p.m. Nov. 28. The ABC’s next board meeting is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 21. 

In his ruling, Wright said that, in awarding the license to River Valley, the defendants acted “unreasonably, unlawfully and capriciously” and gave “Nolan thread to stitch up the holes in the RVRC application.” 

The plaintiff took that a step further in its filing Tuesday.

“It is now clear that Director Doralee Chandler was the master tailor,” the plaintiff state in the filing. 

Abtin Mehdizadegan, attorney for the plaintiff, said via email last week that he was displeased with the pace and process by which ABC would consider revoking River Valley’s license. Mehdizadegan said Chandler’s actions are not consistent with the judge’s orders. 

 “Of course, the ABC will argue that it is only following its rules,”  Mehdizadegan said. “That specious logic presupposes that the rules even apply. According to Judge Wright, RVRC’s application did not pass go and it did not collect 200 dollars. Because the MMC erred in accepting the application, ABC’s procedures were never activated in the first place. This bureaucratic maneuvering — like Director Chandler’s attempt to overrule the Constitution by issuing RVRC a fine instead of revoking its license in the first place — is precisely the misconduct that resulted in the Writ of Mandamus.”