by Jeroslyn JoVonn
September 6, 2025
Whoopi Goldberg’s WhoopFam hashish firm has ignited a authorized battle with Paterson, New Jersey’s former mayor.
Whoopi Goldberg’s WhoopFam hashish firm has entered right into a authorized conflict with Paterson, New Jersey’s convicted ex-Mayor Joey Torres, over their stalled efforts to open a leisure marijuana retailer within the metropolis.
Courtroom paperwork reveal WhoopFam is countersuing for $167,000 from Torres’ Home of HOPE nonprofit for launch prices tied to a retail house it leased beneath guarantees of metropolis approval, NJ.com stories. The countersuit is available in response to Torres’ group coming after WhoopFam for $52,000 in unpaid hire after the corporate stopped funds when the shop didn’t safe municipal approval.
WhoopFam partnered with Torres’ nonprofit in September 2023 to lease a 1st Avenue constructing in Paterson for a deliberate dispensary. The corporate paid $5,665 in month-to-month hire for a 12 months however stopped in September 2024 after town withheld approval to open the house.
Torres launched Home of HOPE after serving 13 years in jail to assist previously incarcerated folks. His nonprofit included plans to hyperlink them with jobs at WhoopFam’s dispensary.
Courtroom filings say Torres “indicated that he was completely certain that the topic property was already authorised by the Paterson mayor and Metropolis Council for such use” as a marijuana retailer.
“Torres knew or ought to have recognized that his illustration was not correct,” WhoopFam’s counterclaim stated.
The corporate even had backing from Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, who endorsed WhoopFam’s state license utility in 2022. However by July 2023, the Paterson Metropolis Council proposed three different hashish outlets and excluded WhoopFam. Among the many proposals, all three had been denied over zoning problems with being too near properties, colleges, or locations of worship.
In Could, Torres’ nonprofit filed a landlord-tenant grievance claiming WhoopFam owed $52,514 in unpaid hire. In July, WhoopFam countersued, arguing Torres’ group truly owes them $167,681 for launch bills, together with a $60,000 utility payment paid to Paterson for house that in the end by no means acquired municipal approval.
Home of HOPE doesn’t personal the first Avenue property the place WhoopFam deliberate its hashish retailer, however as an alternative leased it from Paterson landlord Richard Salerno. Earlier this summer time, a choose moved the dispute out of landlord-tenant courtroom and into the Regulation Division, the place civil lawsuits are dealt with.
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