Charlotte Man’s Lawsuit Claims He Was Arrested Over Legal Hemp

A Charlotte man filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging that two police officers wrongfully arrested him and his former girlfriend for smoking marijuana, even after he repeatedly told them it was legal hemp. Attorneys for Southern Coalition for Social Equality filed the suit on behalf of Anthony Lee. The filing also claims a third officer assaulted the former girlfriend, Christine Pierre. 

The case is at least the second federal challenge over law-enforcement officers’ reliance on odor as probable cause in searches, seizures, and arrests. Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant species, Cannabis sativa, and their smell is impossible to distinguish, even for K-9s. 

Under federal and state law, marijuana is defined as cannabis having 0.3% or more delta-9 THC, which is what gets people high. Hemp, which is classified as any form of the plant with under 0.3% delta-9 THC, has been legal in North Carolina since 2019, but marijuana is not. This legal morass has led to a number of challenges in local and state appellate courts, but law-enforcement officers continue to use odor to justify searches. 

That is exactly what Lee and Pierre say happened to them not long after they moved from New York to Charlotte to start a new life. At around 2:00 p.m. on November 13, 2023, they had just gotten off work at a Bojangles on South Tryon Street and were sitting on a bus stop bench sharing a hemp cigarette they had purchased legally from a local smoke shop, according to the filing.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) officers Kenneth Kludy and Devan Wilson, who were driving by in a patrol car, claimed they smelled marijuana. They parked and walked over to the couple. 

According to the lawsuit, Pierre and Lee told the officers several times that they were smoking legal hemp. Within 25 seconds of approaching the pair, Wilson grabbed Lee’s arm and began placing him under arrest, said the complaint, which cited police body-camera footage. Kludy did the same with Pierre. Then additional officers arrived at the scene, including Vincent Pistone. The complaint alleged that Pistone kicked Pierre in the knees seven times and hit her with the bottom of his closed fist—a strike known as a “hammer fist”—10 times, per their filing. 

The officers charged both Lee and Pierre with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. Lee was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and Pierre was charged with assault on a government official. Two weeks later, Mecklenburg County prosecutors dismissed all the charges. They said based on the body-camera footage and witness statements, they didn’t believe they had a likelihood of successfully prosecuting the case. 

As The Assembly previously reported, Pistone was suspended for 40 hours and ordered to get additional training. An internal investigation cleared the other six officers, including Kludy and Wilson.

“This case is about what happens when police recklessly and intentionally use junk science to stand in for a reasonable investigation,” Dominique Erney, an attorney for Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in a statement. “CMPD knew for years that its officers could not distinguish between what is legal or illegal based on the mere sight or smell. They kept arresting people anyway. That’s not a mistake; that’s a choice.”

City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Efforts to reach the two officers were not successful. Pierre’s attorney, Lauren Newton, did not return a message seeking comment.

Three years after the state legalized industrial hemp, lawmakers decriminalized intoxicating hemp as a controlled substance, paving the way for a multi-million dollar business. But legal challenges have piled up in courtrooms since then.

In May, the state Supreme Court issued decisions, State v. Rowdy and State v. Dobson. In both cases, Justice Anita Earls, writing for the majority, determined that officers had relied on more than odor to justify their searches. A decision in a third case, State v. Schiene, is still pending but could come as early as next month. 

These cases, as noted in Lee’s and Pierre’s lawsuit, could have far-reaching racial implications. Lee and Pierre are Black; a September 2021 report for the city found that CMPD officers stopped Black motorists and pedestrians at higher rates than other races. Black people were also twice as likely to be arrested as white people after a traffic stop and to experience officers’ use of force. 

The city’s own data showed that between 2016 and 2023, Black people represented 81% of arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession. 

Also pending is a federal lawsuit alleging that a Greenville police officer cited Dominique Prather, then a student at North Carolina A&T State University, with marijuana possession, despite her repeatedly stating she had bought legal hemp from a nearby store.  She even offered to show him the receipt on her phone, according to that complaint.