Melissa Etheridge Two Northern California business partners are fighting a legal battle over the singer’s short-lived foray into the cannabis business, claiming he “abandoned them” and “financially ruined them.”
The Grammy-winning songwriter, who rose to stardom in the 1990s with hits like “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One,” announced the launch of Etheridge Farms in 2019, a company aimed at bringing the benefits of cannabis to middle-aged women. “They have an expectation from cannabis, and I want Etheridge Farms to be the one to deliver on that expectation,” the singer said at the time.
But five years later, her former business partners claim that Etheridge and her wife effectively ruined the company by refusing to support it. Billboard, Josephine and D’Angelo Roberto “There was nothing left,” he said.
“The Roberto family trusted the Etheridges and had committed their lives to the business,” the lawyers wrote. Christopher Frost “Unfortunately, their hard work has not resulted in a success story, but rather a story of betrayal and abandonment,” said lawyers from Frost Law Firm, who are representing the Roberts.
The complaint seeks arbitration and initiates a lawsuit-like case that would play out like a lawsuit, but would be decided by a private arbitrator rather than by a judge in open court, as is often required by the companies’ operating agreements.
Representatives for the Etheridges, including the lawyer who served with the arbitration demand, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the dispute. A lawyer for the Robertos declined to comment.
A budding partnership
Roberto and his wife, nicknamed Josey and Cricket, said they met Etheridge and her wife. Linda Wallem Etheridge After meeting through mutual friends in Northern California in 2017, the four made plans to launch a series of cannabis businesses, including Etheridge Farms and Etheridge Botanicals. Articles from 2019 San Jose Mercury NewsThe singer said part of her inspiration came from her use of cannabis while battling breast cancer in the 2000s.
“After I finished chemotherapy, I said, I want to advocate for this, this is something I believe in so deeply as medicine,” she said. Mercury News“I started looking around California and thinking about what to do. I wanted to get involved and actually said to my friends, ‘I want to be the face of cannabis.'” In the same article, Josey said the Etheridges “genuinely share the same values that Cricket and I share when it comes to health and wellness.”
According to legal documents, in 2018, the group signed a lease for a large facility in Soquel, California, to manufacture and distribute its products, and also obtained key regulatory licenses for the facility.
The plan, according to the Robertos, was for the couple to use their extensive cannabis industry expertise to work on product development while the Etheridges would use their celebrity status to promote the business, seek outside investors and continue to financially support the venture.
Got yourself in a sticky situation?
But while the Robertos say they “poured all of their money, time and attention into the business,” the Etheridges allege they didn’t. They say the Etheridges neglected to promote the business and then stopped financially supporting it. They also allegedly failed to pay rent on the Soquel facility as promised by 2020, according to court documents. When the landlord finally evicted them, the Robertos say it cost them a key regulatory license tied to the property.
“Despite their persistent efforts, the Etheridges’ total lack of involvement and financial support for the Etheridge Entities ultimately caused the LLC’s sales and performance to decline,” the couple’s lawyers wrote in their arbitration demand.
The alleged business collapse comes amid a major personal tragedy for Etheridge: In May 2020, Etheridge announced that his son, Beckett Cypher, with former partner Julie Cypher, had died from causes related to opioid addiction. A few months later, Etheridge launched the Etheridge Foundation to advocate and support research into new treatments for opioid addiction.
Those tragic events are not directly mentioned in the new legal documents, but the Robertos’ lawyers have mentioned them in their lawsuit.
“The Etheridges have suffered personal losses and the Robertos have their deepest sympathies,” their lawyers wrote in a filing earlier this month. “However, despite these personal losses and in light of the difficulties the parties have faced, the Etheridges ultimately ‘derailed’ the entire joint venture, withdrew payments they had promised to make, and left the Robertos in an even worse position.”
In technical terms, the arbitration demand accuses the Etheridges of breaching their fiduciary duties to the companies, breaching their contracts with the Robertos, breaching legal promises they made to the couple, and making fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations.
The couple are seeking an undetermined amount in damages, but say they are entitled to at least $3 million. “The Robertos have not brought this lawsuit or pursued arbitration for fame, fortune or revenge,” their lawyers wrote. “Rather, they seek compensation for the suffering and financial devastation they have endured as a result of their abandonment by the Etheridges.”
